The Elito method was the first analysis method we used, and it is basically based off brute force thinking.
Description of the Method
Basic discription
This method is all about getting observations you got from the research, by filling out a sheet with five different columns, which are listed out bellow.
- The "Observations" are the bits of raw data you want to analyze, and they fill out the first column in it.
- The "Judgements" are the next column, and they are the judgements you make off the observations you see.
- The "Values" are the middle column, they are the value you can learn about the subject based off the observation or the judgement you made.
- The "Concept/Sketch" is the next column, and they are basically design directions you can go with for each one based off your observations, judgements, and values.
- Finally, The "Key metaphors" are the last column, and to me they are just little metaphors you have to remember them better, I usally try to make them a joke for fun.
You do this through a data sheet, where you write all of these down one by one. First you start with observations, you should right down a lot of different observations down, as many as you can actually. After that, you can fill the rest of them kind of how you please, since doing them out of order is fine, in fact it can sometimes get you unstuck. So basically now you have to fill the rest of them out.
To do this, you basically have to sit down and force ideas out for each one, making as many judgements, finding many different values, and forcing ideas out for nearly all of them. This is also meant to connect different lines on the data together, and you can move them around to better connect them together. You can move them around by either printing them out, cutting each of them up, and moving them around, or you can do it by duing it online through the spreadsheet you used to make the elito sheet to begin with.
Actually Doing the method
The first thing you should do in this method is write down as many observations as you can think of based off your research. You should probably do this through a file sharing website, for instance, google drive using there datasheet thing. You want to use a file sharing one so all of the people who worked on it can help make this.
After you feel out all your observations, then starts the long tedious process of going back and filling in all the sections of the chart, usually from left to right, but sometimes you can skip of sections for a bit or not fill them out at all.
While doing this, you can move them around to fit them together, kind of like a puzzle. Once you have alot down, you can also print them out, and move them around that way, if it helps you out more to do it that way.
Now you just basically have to keep doing this til a majority of all the spaces are filled out, and you should have a lot of potiential design directions to go with.
Positives and negatives
Positives
- You are forced to make new and different ideas off random observations.
- Helps you analyze a lot of data and make sense of it.
- Forces you to look at each piece of data, piece by piece.
Negatives
- Can take a long time to do
- Could get stuck easily
- Its a brute force method, and those can be bad.
Tips and Tricks
- If you get stuck, move onto another column and then come back, sometimes working on other ones can bring new light to the situation.
- Try to make the observations not that complicated, make them as bare as they can.
- Work on this at the same time as someone else, so you can work off each other
- Take breaks, dont work on this for over 4 hours like I did.
Project we used it for
We did this to figure out more information off the first group project we did, which was clutter in the home. We ended up doing this through google drive, and too way longer then we first thought. Not only this, but I think we ended up doing it wrong, and ended up not filling up all of the spots. Definitally not my finest work.
Hughes's Corner
Have to be honest, was not one of my favorites, but also unlike some people, I still dont think its the worst method that we did. The method that I got the least out of is still to come.
This method can take forever, which I found really annoying, its its also easy to get stuck on sections and filling out as much as you can will get very annoying as well. I do not see why someone would use this over affienty diagrams.