What do designers wear on insights visits?

fig 1. Left socks good, right socks bad. For insights anyway. Right ones are having too much fun.

What do service designers wear on insights visits?

If you are going on a customer insight visit, I always recommend smart polo shirts or casual shirts, not too much pattern or bold statement t-shirts. And never suits (unless you are visiting a business and interviewing bosses etc). Better to look like you might be there to fix the heating than to sell insurance. It’s basically, not too trendy, not too smart. That usually covers all the bases. If you have a client going with you on a home visit (ethnography) make sure you tell them to dress down. You might find that older people expect you to be smarter (they probably expect a market researcher look) but it’s better to slightly disappoint them than to alienate the rest. I realise this is very boy focussed advice, girls need to make sure you are not too “dressed up”, not what you’d wear to visit clients, and not scruffy.

Wear nice socks.
Quite often you will be asked to take of your shoes when entering someones home. So make damn sure you’re not wearing odd socks or ones with holes in. Also if you like bright socks (like I do) you might want to calm them down for the day. (see fig 1)

I’ll be writing more about how to behave on insights visits soon.