25
Design Research,
2008
| Editorial
Design Research[ CERVINI, KAYSER et al. Mobile Embodiements. Interaction-Ivrea, 2003 ] Issue 25 of the magazine ELISAVA TdD focuses on the topic of design research through a series of articles which present different but complementary points of view across different areas of activity. Whether focussing on generating new creative processes that look in depth at techniques to help understand users better, or focussing on new methodologies that break with established paradigms, in each case they demonstrate the need to explore collaborative models while also showing that design’s necessary multidisciplinarity contributes to a coherent professional practice. As a study field, design constantly needs to be provided with content through rigorous research. And even more so if we take account of the fact that it is a discipline that appeared only in the last century.
In part, the origins of design research can be found in the appearance, after the Second World War, of research methods and decision-making techniques, the development of creative techniques in the 1950s and the beginning of the application of software tools for solving problems in the 1960s. Design research as a discipline emerged in the 1960s, initially marked by a conference Design Methods1 held by Imperial College of London in 1962. Out of this conference emerged the Design Research Society (DRS) founded in 1966. John Chris Jones - who initiated the conference - founded a Design Research Laboratory at University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. Subsequently, Bruce Archer founded the Design Research Department at the Royal College of Art, becoming the first professor of design research. According to the Design Research Society, the aim of design research is “to promote the study of and research into the process of designing in all its different fields”. Its purpose, then, is to reflect from an academic and independent point of view on the process of design itself and its interrelationship with other disciplines. Today, one could say that the recent development of design research has generated a new concept of design as an independent study discipline, reinforced by the affirmation that design has its own discourse, with the consequences that this entails. Bruce Archer encapsulated this idea stating that “there exists a new way of understanding and communicating [in design] that is different from purely academic or scientific techniques”2. Similarly, Donald Schön (1983) promoted this new view in his book The Reflective Practitioner3, in which he challenged technical rationality and hoped to establish “an epistemology of practice implicit in the artistic and intuitive processes with which designers resolve situations of uncertainty, instability, uniqueness and conflict of values”.
Years ago, Herbert Simon4 noted that design was one of the most relevant platforms for reflecting and debating on what shape the future should have. Furthermore, according to Brenda Laurel, design research tools today enable designers “to demand and direct the potential of their profession”5. The author states that one of the main differences between applied design and design research is that design does not have to be new, but it must be good. Research does not have to be good, but it must be new. In any event, what we could say is that, at least, design research helps us to generalise knowledge that can be applied to different situations and design projects. This edition, then, incorporates a series of articles which - whether through reflection or through case studies - point to a series of key questions for the practice of design. How do we transform the theory generated through design research into generalisable practices? How do we integrate research techniques from other humanity disciplines - such as ethnography, sociology, anthropology - into the process of design? Is design research compatible with commercial practice? What is the difference between applied design and design research? The first group of texts - written by Gillian Crampton-Smith and Simona Maschi and Heather Martin - represent a clear recognition of the growing complexity of design, the need to develop new tools and methods while focusing a large part of their discourse on resolving the last of the issues raised in the previous paragraph. Specifically, the first article in this issue of ELISAVA TdD contains the transcript of a lecture given by Gillian Crampton-Smith at the Forum on Innovation organised by the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam in March of this year. Crampton-Smith is one of the pioneers of interactive design and with a long experience in research at centres such as London’s Royal College of Art and the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea and she offers us her view on the objectives of design research. In her presentation, Crampton-Smith questions the true nature of design research and points out that this, to be considered research, must be distanced from more commercial areas, since research is a road into the unknown. And, while the end result may be unsuccessful, the process of research itself can provide valuable lessons that can be applied to future projects. In the second text, Mark Stevens, drawing together opinions from Simona Maschi and Heather Martin - directors of the recently created Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design - presents the philosophy of this new centre where education, research and consulting are brought together, a trio that ensures the feedback of design processes from the applied to the speculative. The CIID model presents us with an intelligent option at a time when academies need to reassess their relationship with the business world, committing to a form of innovation that is only possible in environments free of purely commercial considerations. The third contribution, by Karmen Franinovic, researcher at the Zurich School of Art, provides us with an advance look of her doctoral thesis in which she studies the basic foundations of interactive design, in particular interaction with sound objects. This consists of an academic research project that is in progress and which at the same time reflects upon the parallelisms that exist between methodologies developed in avant-garde schools such as Bauhaus and the current practice of design research. She states that what are needed are creative strategies that break with established paradigms and which help us to define the bases of a new medium. The two final articles are case studies of research projects applied to specific situations: the management of micro-credits in Uganda and Kenya, and the local health care management system in the Italian province of Cuneo. The first case study has been developed by the Design for Sustainability group of Delft Universidad of Technology (Netherlands) for Kiva.org, with financing from Microsoft Research’s Digital Inclusion Initiative. The second has been carried out within the framework of the Torino World Design Capital. Both the first team - Jon Rodriguez and Cale Thompson - and the second - Lekshmy Parameswaran and Laszlo Herczegh - demonstrate the value of innovation strategies that are focused on the study of users, with the objective being, without any doubt, to guide future design commissions. At the same time, however, they also concern research methodologies applied to the conditions demanded by society and the environment, being positioned at the centre of user processes. We must point out that, while these methodologies are aimed at demonstrating latent needs that would not easily be uncovered otherwise, there is the danger of assuming that users know what they want - when frequently they are not even aware of the possibilities that exist. Therefore, these methodologies must be complemented with views that confront and validate the research. After this brief review of the different contributions in issue 25 of ELISAVA TdD, where design research logically appears as somewhat closely related to the university world, we demonstrate a final aspect that we wish to highlight. The role of design schools not just as mere transmitters of knowledge but also as generators of it. There is no question that the challenge for these centres must be to go beyond their essential task of training competent professionals and promote (as proposed in issue 24 of this magazine) establishing a viewpoint of one’s own. 1. JONES, J C and D G THORNLEY (eds) (1963) Conference on Design Methods. Oxford, UK: Pergamon Press
2. ARCHER, L B (1965) Systematic Method for Designers. London The Design Council
3. SCHON, D (1983) The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. London: Temple Smith
4. SIMON, H (1969). “The Science of Design: Creating the Artificial”. En: The Sciences of the Artificial. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 55-56
5. LAUREL, B. (2003) Design Research: Methods and Perspectives. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
|
Contents
25
Design Research,
2008
KARMEN FRANINOVIC Toward Basic Interaction Design “Where are the artists?!” asked Hiroshi Ishii, a professor at MIT Media Lab, addressing a panel at the 2008 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, this year entitled Art.Science.Balance1. 25 Design Research, 2008 Lekshmy Parameswaran, Laszlo Herczegh Healthy Region Cuneo Healthy Region Cuneo is a healthcare innovation project that was initiated in the summer of 2008 for the Italian regional health system of ASL CN1. The project proposed new design strategies and solutions that addressed the local healthcare needs of the citizens and care providers of the region of Cuneo. [...]25 Design Research, 2008 Cale Thompson, JON RODRIGUEZ Putting technology into context Into(context) is a design research project developed by the Design
for Sustainability group of Delft University of Technology, Kiva.org
and funded by Microsoft Research’s Digital Inclusion Initiative. The
initiative had as its goal to fund investigations of the role
information & communication technology (ICT) can play in creating
solutions for overcoming the myriad barriers facing the developing
world. 25 Design Research, 2008 GILLIAN CRAMPTON-SMITH The Craft of Interaction Design The following text is a transcript of a talk by Gillian Crampton-Smith at Innovation Forum Interaction Design, Potsdam, March 2007. The aim of the two-day conference was to focus on all aspects of interface and interaction design: mobile telephone and media interfaces, problem solutions and product visions, web pages and virtual worlds, art and commerce, business and science. Using both concrete projects and visionary concepts, current developments in interaction design were presented and discussed by regional and international experts from the design, research and business worlds. [...]25 Design Research, 2008 Mark Stevens Mind the Gap: Education, Consultancy and Research at CIID Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID) was founded by Simona Maschi and Heather Martin in August 2006. With an aim to build an international centre of excellence in interaction design and innovation, CIID incorporates three elements –education, research and consultancy– that together explore new thinking in design and technology. [...] |