Rethinking Design: Theory as a Practical Tool

• Context
• Key Takeaways
• Applications
• Conclusion

Context

Coming from the field of product design, I have found myself struggling to underpin my design decisions with solid evidence. Typically, designers obtain evidence from user research, but not all companies prioritize it or have the resources to conduct meaningful empirical studies. This highlights the importance of secondary research, which provides theoretical support for making well-informed design decisions. Strictly speaking, those decisions should still be validated through methods like user testing, but theories help align design intent more closely with real-world user needs—better than decisions based purely on intuition.

However, design is a relatively young discipline, and many of the theories we apply in practice actually come from adjacent domains such as psychology and economics. The Systems Innovation and Design unit in my first semester introduced a range of established user behaviour theories and models I had not encountered before—ones I now see as having real potential for informing my professional work.

Key Takeaways

1. The theories address both user and the system perspectives, making them especially useful in guiding interaction design. For example, the Technology Acceptance Model (Davis, 1986) explores how users react to system features through behaviours.
2. They evolve to stay relevant. Theories adapt to new discoveries and trends. For instance, the User Acceptance of Hedonic Information Systems (van der Heijden, 2004) builds on the Technology Acceptance Model by adding Perceived Enjoyment—alongside Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use—to better explain behaviour in hedonic contexts like gaming.
3. They offer practical, measurable constructs. Concepts such as Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use can be quantified using scales in user surveys or similar research methods.
4. They are intellectually accessible. The core ideas are straightforward, and real-world examples make them easy to grasp and apply.

Applications

These theories immediately make me feel more equipped to make design decisions backed by evidence. Even when I’m able to conduct user research, theories provide an ideal starting point—saving time, money, and effort.

For instance, the Information Systems Success Model (DeLone and McLean, 2003) states that system quality, information quality, and service quality influence user satisfaction and intention to use. This means that to increase system adoption:

1. The system itself must be reliable, usable and performant.
2. The information it delivers should be accurate, relevant and timely.
3. The services (e.g. maintanence, customer support) should be well-executed.

Designers can use these as initial criteria to prototype and test, shortening the development cycle and reducing costs. The model also highlights the importance of cross-functional collaboration in system design.

Conclusion

The Systems Innovation and Design course helped me rethink how I approach my practice. The user behaviour theories we explored will guide my future evidence-based design work. I plan to dive deeper into these and related theories to continue building meaningful, research-informed design strategies.