GInI’sCertified Innovation Professional (CInP) Handbookdefines Design Research as a critical component of needfinding and Design Thinking, focusing on "the interactions between people and things" to uncover insights about user behavior, needs, and experiences. This involves observing how individuals engage with products, services, or systems (the "things")—their touchpoints, pain points, and usage patterns—to inform user-centered design. The goal is to optimize the user experience by understanding these interfaces, a principle rooted in human-centered design methodologies that GInI adopts. Option B, "interactions between different things," shifts focus to system mechanics, not user-centricity. Option C, "interactions between different people," emphasizes social dynamics, missing the product/service context. Option D, "things people never see," like backend processes, is irrelevant to user experience design. Option A aligns with GInI’s explicit wording and intent, matching the original answer, reflecting a disciplined approach to empathizing with users and translating observations into actionable design improvements—a cornerstone of GInI’s Front End innovation process.