Imagine how much more effective the design process would be if you know what your clients were really thinking.
What colors inspire them? How do they interact with their physical environments? How does sunlight make them feel?
Answers to such questions are rarely gathered during typical pre-design planning sessions.
For one thing, design teams rarely delve that deeply into the human psyche of end-users. And most people have difficulty verbalizing this kind of subjective information, says Christine Del Sole.
“ Research shows that only 5% of what the average person thinks can be expressed verbally, “ says Del Sole. The other 95% is hidden deep within the subconscious.
Developed by Harvard Business School professor Gerald Zaltman, the technique has been used for years by Coca-cola, DuPont, and other 500 companies as a market research tool for product and brand development.