The theme for this week has been Design research with the assignment to read two articles, Finding design qualities in a tangible programming space by Fernaeus and Tholander as well as Differentiated Driving Range by Lundström, both using design research as a research method. One of the task was to define the empirical data in these two articles which I had a hard time doing. Mostly because I was not entirely sure what empirical data actually is. This week’s lecturer, Ylva Fernaeus, talked about it a bit but I still struggled with the definition. During the seminar me and my group spend quite some time discussing what empirical data actually is and whether practical design work in itself can be viewed as a knowledge contribution. We came to the conclusion that empirical data is all the information and insights you collect from doing observation and experimentation as well as building prototypes and testing them. The process within a design research is also a kind of data. We all agreed that one of the main differences between design intentions within a research project and design in general is the focus on the process, which is more obvious in design within a research project. Design in general, for example designing a new product, is more focused on functionality and optimization and there is also a business side of it: How should we develop this product so that can make revenues?. Of course design research could include a business side but I think the intention is more about finding out behaviours and attitudes towards different topics. To use a classical quote as illustration regarding design intention within a research project: It’s not about the destination. It’s about the journey. Compared to design i general where it’s more about the destination and not so much the journey.
Regarding whether practical design work in itself can be viewed as a knowledge contribution, I would still argue that it can. During the seminar my group had a short discussion with Andreas Lundström about this and his take on it was that silent knowledge can come out of empirical data by for example the pre-study and testing prototypes. He also said that the result of a design oriented research could be the problem, which I had never thought of but makes a lot of sense. By observing people you might identify some sort of problem that needs to be solved. I am going to use Lundström’s article as an example, by observing electric car drivers Lundström noticed that the current driving range tool on the dashboard sometimes cause confusion among the drivers. He thereby identified a problem, by observing electric car drivers, that needs to be solved. I would not say that Lundstörm’s proposed prototype for a different driving range system is the result of his research. I would rather claim that the one important result of Lundstörm’s study was the insight to improve the situation for electric car drivers. That is, the problem is the result. Lundström tolds us that he had written a follow-up article where he let people test his prototype. In such study the result is obviously not an identified problem, but rather the outcome of the prototype testing. But I think it’s interesting how you can do one research to identify a problem and use that research to do a follow-up testing the solution.
Totally agree on the "journey" metaphor. Disagree on design research as not possible to combine with commercial intent. I think design research revolves more around planning and formulating the research question than other research (I think we're on the same page there). But the question for a researcher which also always is relevant is "who will fund this study?". In some cases, a university will, in others a business. And design research remains design research, its only difference here is the sponsor (and probably its goals, as a result of sponsors having various input). I hope you followed my line of thought.
SvaraRaderaOther than that, nice contribution. I also liked that you identified the importance of how research can create important foundation for future research - especially important when the world is changing faster. I think we could be looking at a future with smaller pieces of research done at the time to shorten peer review process - especially within design research where the historic snapshot is as most relevant. Then this way of thinking becomes even more important; setting ground for continued work.
Nicely written post, that was interesting for me to learn about the concept of the "silent knowledge".
SvaraRaderaI would like to supplement the previous comment on the design research. In my opinion, the research question and the ultimate aim of the study depends on the goals and intentions of the scientist, especially when it comes to the "interdisciplinary approach". For example, the research question may sound like this: "How do some features of the product X impact the average purchase size?". The answer lies on the boundary between sociology, psychology, economics etc, and the results may be interesting for the private companies manufacturing X, while economists and psychologists may find the behavioral part more fascinating.
Hi! I enjoyed reading your interesting reflection!
SvaraRaderaThe metaphor that you use to explain the difference between design intentions and design in general is interesting.
I agree with you that design research can contribute to new knowledge as the research question can be based on an observation that was made, but there wasn’t necessary a solution for. By doing research and coming with a solution, this solution can be seen as a contribution to knowledge as there might not have been a solution for it or if there was you weren’t aware of it/ it wasn’t brought to your attention and now it is.
Interesting post and conclusions!
SvaraRaderaI feel like if we dealt with the same questions during this week. I too came to reflect on the difference between "aesthetic" design and research design projects, and felt like if it was hard to fully separate the notions. I liked your way of brining in a business perspective in the comparison between the two - even if I personally believe there to be some similarities in the way commercial design seeks revenues, and research design seeks funds.
Your chosen quote is very illustrative for this weeks theme (and the entire course, really)!
Hi,
SvaraRaderaI thought your idea of the results in design research is quite interesting. I think you make a good point in saying that it is the "problem that is the result", but I would also want to add that the process in itself could be a result. The problem might be the result of Lundström's research, but I believe in Fernaeus case she was more interested in how children would react by simple modifications in the program. I think these modifications became a resulting process. Seems to me that design research is a rather complex field where the purpose of the research decides on what is going to be considered as the result.
I think the quote "It’s not about the destination. It’s about the journey" is a very good illustration on how to distinguish design research from other research. If the main focus is about how they got to a certain point, and they illustrate, document and explain that journey, then it is safe to assume the research is about design research. Even if quantitive and qualitative methods are used to evaluate which is the best design.
SvaraRaderaI also agree that design research can definitely be knowledge contribution. Not only in the way that it may expose any problems that are worth researching, but also that if someone finds a more efficient way of completing a task, this can be reused by others. As an example: In the seminar about quantitative research we said that most of the time researchers use exiting questionnaires because they have been proven to work and provide usable data. These questionnaires had been part of design research at first.
Thank you for this nice reflection. You stated clearly what you learned and how the discussions in the seminar went. I also had some struggles with defining the empirical data in advance. From my experience of reading papers of other researches (not design researches) they start with the introduction and theoretical background, continue with the method and after that the empirical data is presented and in a last step the data is interpreted and discussed. In the papers about empirical design there was no such structure. So I was also confused about what it could be. You described it very nicely, that especially in research through design the way the goal is, so that the empirical data is. The problem is that you can’t really define it like in other researches, where it’s the statistical data or an interview protocol. The form of it can vary a lot between the researches and also inside a research.
SvaraRaderaThanks for the interesting reflection! I agreed with your point on whether practical design work in itself can be viewed as a knowledge contribution, the chances are possible to produce. However, the teacher mentioned that the result of the design oriented research can be a tricky problem, which is not a subjective result. How to improve the performance of the research remains an issue to solve it.
SvaraRaderaThanks for your thoughts!
SvaraRaderaI think you explain the different between a research project and design in general very well. In a process you will gain knowledge, which is one of the main objective within design-oriented research. Through the research processes the researcher want to build scientific knowledge that can implicates into future work. And as you put it, design in general is about creating new, it does not need to understand the world. You wrote, “I think it’s interesting how you can do one research to identify a problem and use that research to do a follow-up testing the solution”, I believe this is the one of the main aim, to create reusable knowledge, design researcher wants their findings to be put into future project or products.
God job with you blog post!
Hi and thank you for an interesting reflection! In the beginning of this theme, I also viewed the process as the most important part of the research. But as the week progressed, I changed my mind. I think it was partly due to a conversation with Anders, where I asked him about the aim of the study conducted. He told me that the ultimate aim was to create a better situation for the driver of the electrical cars. Hence, for that particular research I would say that the destination is the goal, rather than the journey.
SvaraRaderaHej hej! Thanks for such a great reflection! During the seminar in my small group there was also someone who metaphorically connected design intention in the research as more like a design being a way and not a destination allows to open doors to wider researches. This leads to my full agreement of what you say at the end that research can be like never ending vicious circle - one research tests one theories or hypothesis and then it raises some problems, which you can solve by doing and designing another research and so on..
SvaraRadera