To continue…
Back from dog walking mode, I am now switching myself back to email writing mode. I cannot run the two programs together.
I wanted to add some minor notes to the EBD discussion. The call for EBD, at least in my area of design practice, arises for a variety of reasons, the most important of which is that many so called professionals in my area of information and communication design make claims about the success of their designs without offering any evidence in support of this claim work.
As a design researcher I have contributed to a body of knowledge that suggest that many of these so called professionals are closer to snake oil merchants in providing evidence for their claims than they are to professionals in other areas. This is of some concern to the public who have to put up with their designs and to the organisations that employ them to create these designs.
As a design researcher I have also contributed to a growing body of knowledge which shows that by adding appropriately collected evidence at various stages in the design process, we can greatly improve the likelihood of an acceptable outcome. Without going into detail, much of which is in our published work, we have found that the snake oil merchants achieve outcomes around the 40% mark, whereas using routine evidence based methods as part of an overall design process achieves 90% plus. One of the areas I work in is health. The simple reality is that our 90% plus can lead to fewer deaths than the 40% at the other end. Hence my championing of EBD.
I should add, in support of Terry, that there is a great deal that could be done to automate some of the work we do, but that is an economic matter and paying for it is the issue. What I do know though is that without the evidence, the chances of raising the funds are nil.
On a slightly more tangential issue about EBD, the notion of
> evidence beyond reasonable doubt
is probably anathema to any serious professional or academic researcher. Most would start from the proposition that NOTHING is beyond reasonable doubt. Skepticism is the norm. In design research this is extended into a a kind of healthy pragmatism. EBD generates evidence which seems appropriate and useful under the circumstances. Put more generally, there is little that is black and white, either or in our work. It’s far more exciting than that. Indeed, fifty shades of grey, doesn’t even come close!
Warm wishes from a sunny (next ten minutes) in Melbourne.
David
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blog: http://communication.org.au/bl <http://communication.org.au/bl>og
web: http://communication.org.au <http://communication.org.au/>
Professor David Sless BA MSc FRSA
CEO • Communication Research Institute •
• helping people communicate with people •
Mobile: +61 (0)412 356 795
Phone: +61 (03) 9005 5903
Skype: davidsless
60 Park Street • Fitzroy North • Melbourne • Australia • 3068
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