Research & Methodology: Research Proposal

31.03.22 - 24.04.22 (Week 1 - Week 4)
Chai Yi Xuan / 0346645 / B' Creative Media
Design Research & Methodology
Task 1 / Research Proposal

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LECTURES

Research Problem

The factors one should consider when selecting a research problem are:

• Interest
• Expertise
• Data availability
• Relevance
• Ethics
  

To formulate a research problem, first identify the subject area you are interested in. Secondly, identify and define the problem in your area of interest. Next, read through some articles to gather insight on your area of interest. Then, select your research design, subjects and data collection techniques. Once you know what you want to do, it is time to do some data gathering. After gathering data, one should analyze it and interpret the data. When it's done, formulate implications, conclusions and recommendations. All that's left is to publish and communicate the results.

Writing Problem Statement

A problem statement is made up of 3 parts. Part A, the ideal, which is to describe a desired goal or ideal situation. Part B, the reality, to describe a condition that prevents the goal that prevents the ideal. Part C, the consequences, to identify a way to improve the current situation and progress toward the ideal. There are four steps to formulate a statement problem.

Step 1 (Statement 1)

Statement 1 should describe a desired goal/state of a given situation, phenomenon, etc. It illustrates the picture of an ideal situation.

Step 2 (Statement 2)

For this statement, it should describe a condition that prevents the happenings of the ideal situation. It presents the reality of the current situation, and highlights the gap between reality and the ideal situation.

Step 3

Combine both Statement 1 and Statement 2 with terms such as 'unfortunately', 'yet', 'however', etc.

Step 4 (Statement 3)

Specify how the situation illustrated in Statement 2 will not be improved unless something is done. Emphasize the benefits of research by projecting the consequences of possible solutions.

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INSTRUCTIONS

To-Do List:

Propose a topic for your research in your area of interest (specialisation)

Week 1

On our first week, we were to write a short rationale (200 words) on our chosen research topic. At the start, I had trouble choosing between my specialization. Dr Hayati invited lecturers from each specialization and they introduced the basics of each subject, hoping to help us in our selection process. It took me a few days and some questioning until I made the choice. This gave me only a little time left to write a proposal. I wrote down the “theme” I wish to explore, which is concept artist. I then expanded on what possible topics I can research in that particular theme.

 

Week 2

I finally narrowed it down to a topic that I’m happy with, which is character designing. There were a few potentials in it, and I eventually settled with representation in character designing. I gathered some information on the internet, just to gauge on what materials I could use for my research. I find that the lack of representation is a topic worth researching, so I searched up on paper related to that matter.

Week 3

I compiled quite a few research papers that may be relevant to my topic. I found multiple articles, all discussing about representation in character designs, in various fields such as animation and video games. At first, I wanted to study character design in animation. However, after some more reading, I decided to go with character design in video games, as there are more research papers on the topic.

Week 4

Class is substituted with Library Literacy, where we learned how to find research materials and do proper referencing. I’ve learned a lot and it made referencing in my proposal a lot easier. I created the slides in my folder and transferred most of my information there.

Figure 1: Proposal presentation slides (24/04/22)

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REFLECTIONS

Truth be told, I'm not too excited about this module. I'm more of a practical person and prefer to create than to sit down and do research. At the start of this assignment, I was still indecisive of my specialization choice, and I felt a bit rushed to make my decision. Though honestly it was good thing, since I had to decide on one by this semester anyway.

Realising that I had to look up on research articles to write my proposal made me feel intimidated for what's to come for the rest of the module. While I do enjoy reading a fiction book or two, that does not apply for research papers. Sometimes, the terms they use would confuse me and I had to reread the sentence to understand the gist of it. The one good thing that came out of this was that I picked up on a few new words and terminology, so I suppose my knowledge at least have expanded.