Somewhere along the thread of one of these discussion there was a mention of
Phenomenology as being relevant to industrial design. I would like to pick up
on this and add a comment.
Sometimes it is the very naďve understanding that an industrial designer might
bring to an area that allows innovation to occur. When, one looks with new eyes
at something which has a body of history and research behind it, it is
sometimes to see something to which others have been blinded.
That is one of the gifts of being trained in creative problem solving but not
in the specifics the particular field of concern, new eyes.
Jan
Jan Coker
C3-10 Underdale Campus
University of South Australia
+61 8 8302 6919
"Justice is not limited, it is a universal quality. Its operation must be
carried out in all classes, from the highest to the lowest. Justice must be
sacred, and the rights of all the people must be considered. Desire for others
only that which you desire for yourselves. Then shall we rejoice in the Sun of
Justice."
Abdu'l-Bahá
-----Original Message-----
From: David Durling [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, 20 September 2002 5:21 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Common Ground
On Wed, 18 Sep 2002 11:51:45 +0100 Kristina Niedderer
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> What i want to propose is to understand design
> generally as a creative process of manipulation
> that is principally devoid of its own content. Its
> content is the thing or idea to which it is
> applied. Two things arise from this. Firstly, the
> nature of the process is what all design activity
> seems to have in common. Secondly, the framework
> for the application, I suggest, should then evolve
> from the subject I am involved with, i.e. to which
> I am applying the design process at a specific
> moment or project. Which means, if I am looking
> at a particular social service, I will probably
> best be looking at relevant information from
> social sciences/ anthropology in terms of theory
> and processes (e.g. ethnographic studies to
> understand peoples behaviour) to enable me to
> develop an adequate design solution.
>
> I don't think this is a particularly new thing as
> such, since it is already widely practiced, but it
> does not seem to be understood in this way and it
> is definitely not taught!! I think this idea could
> be developed as a general methodological framework
> to find and develop appropriate methods for each
> specific subject approached.
>
As nobody seems to have picked up the point made by Kristina, I
will make a comment on it.
I agree with the view that one should dig in the annals of
appropriate fields to discover information about the design task
in hand. It is a revelation to many undergraduates that
information helpful to the design task might come from studies
well outside mainstream design. One often sees this with, for
example, multimedia students who take little notice of scientific
findings and guidance about screen legibility, colours,
navigational cues etc. It seems to me that courses, and
individual tutors vary considerably in the way they expose
students to the rich diversity of information in the world.
Perhaps the willingness to search for it will improve as the
internet matures?
A recent study (Powell & Newland 1994) (are either of you on this
list I wonder??) looked at the information needs of architects,
and demonstrated the difficulties of providing both general and
specific understanding by the designers about a certain technical
aspect of what they were doing (fire safety in this case).
Search was characterised by a last minute scramble to find
information arising from established research. It is in this
that the quick-fix needs of designers are shown (and I do not
mean 'quick-fix' in any derogatory sense, just as is). It may
well be that under the pressures of commercial life, the richer
picture of available research findings may not be apparent to the
practitioner. Maybe there is something that researchers can do
to change that situation? (the Powell/Newland paper offers some
advice about adapting the form of information to suit the
learning preferences of the designer).
However, bending Kristina's proposition back to the research
itself rather than design practice, it should be that research
degree students are exposed to comparative methods. A reputable
generic research methodology course should do this. There is
however evidence of many researchers working either within a very
narrow understanding of available methods, or using no systematic
methods at all. This comment is not restricted to students. It
is a general problem in a young and developing field such as
art/design, but also a problem in some other and more established
subject areas where tradition dictates that a narrow range of
applications of (usually scientific method) are sufficient to
solve the problem under examination - and where an understanding
of methods from other fields might be desirable, but are not
considered.
---
Powell, James & Paul Newland (1994) Informing multimedia: a
sensitive interface to data for construction design
professionals. In: Design Studies, Vol.15, No.3, 285-316.
---
David
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Dr David Durling / \ | | )
Advanced Research Institute ____ \ __ /
School of Art & Design / \ | \ |
Staffordshire University _/ _\ _| _\ _|
Stoke on Trent, ST4 2XN, UK
voice: +44 (0) 1782 294556 email: [log in to unmask]
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