3.1.3 - Formative project skills: researching solutions
Research is useful when it helps you choose an approach and explain its consequences. You will practise comparing possible solutions, justifying essential features and stating honest limits on an original miniature problem. Every example and activity is formative project-skills practice and supplies no assessed H446/03 candidate submission.
Research questions that can change a decision
Research the actual problem before treating an existing product as a model to copy.
A research question identifies an uncertainty that affects a decision. For a fictional shared art-materials store, useful questions include “How are missing items discovered?”, “Can staff update records while offline?” and “What must happen when two people request the same item?” The answers can change the storage, interface or allocation approach. Looking only at attractive screens does not establish these requirements.
Investigate the current process, stakeholders and solutions to similar problems. A similar solution need not have the same name or audience. A school-equipment checkout tool and a workshop parts system may both reveal ways to represent availability, while having different priorities. Examine a range that offers meaningful alternatives; three nearly identical screenshots do not create a substantial comparison.
Separate primary evidence, obtained directly through your own observations or checks, from secondary evidence, supplied by other sources. Both can be useful. A vendor's claim that a product supports offline work is secondary evidence about a feature. A controlled trial with the network disconnected provides direct evidence about the tested behaviour. Neither establishes everything: a successful trial on one device does not prove compatibility with all devices.
Keep the conditions and source with the finding. If access is limited to a description or demonstration, say so. Do not state that you tested a product you only read about. A research note should identify what was investigated, how, what was found and how that finding affects the decision. Evidence that contradicts the preferred plan may be the most useful evidence of all.
Compare alternatives against the same needs
A fair comparison asks the same relevant questions of each alternative and then explains which differences matter.
In the art-materials practice problem, the established needs are to show current availability, work on one desk computer without internet access and prevent a second active loan of the same item. The following findings are fictional training evidence, not claims about named commercial products:
| Approach investigated | Relevant finding | Consequence for this problem |
|---|---|---|
| Paper loan cards | Work offline, but staff must search cards before each loan | Low setup cost; consistency relies on repeated manual checking |
| Editable spreadsheet | Can filter item rows offline; two rows can still record active loans of the same item | Useful inspection/filtering; the required allocation rule is not automatically enforced |
| Local coded prototype | Demonstration rejects a second active loan and stores records locally | Promising fit; needs verification of restart behaviour, errors and usability |
The prototype is not automatically best because it is coded. It costs development time and introduces maintenance and failure risks. The paper system may be adequate at a very small scale. The spreadsheet could support record inspection but would need a reliable way to enforce the specific loan rule. A conclusion should match the established needs and resources, state the evidence supporting it and recognise the remaining uncertainty.
Research can inform an approach without prescribing a copied implementation. A solution may reuse a useful interaction idea while using different data and rules. Distinguish a feature from the method used to provide it: “reject duplicate active loans” is behaviour; “perform a lookup in the stored loan records before saving” is one processing approach. A library, database or framework is a tool whose suitability still needs justification.
Avoid adding up arbitrary scores and treating the total as objective proof. If offline operation is essential, an otherwise impressive online-only approach may fail a decisive constraint. Explain priorities before making the choice. A comparison is strongest when it exposes both the fit and the reason to reject or defer an alternative.
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