Dear Erik, Rob and Terry

Simulation is an emerging means to facilitate quick
and dirty research when further into the design
process. Not too long ago in "The Advanced Driver
Interface Design and Assessment Project" (the ADIDA
Project) we built operational designs on the computer
that could be immediately tested by the designer, then
by users, in Virtual Reality. Our goal was to
determine whether a design direction was worth
pursuing(i.e. did it make sense to put a cellular
phone dialer on the steering wheel. ) The idea was to
provide designer's with enough supporting evidence to
proceed with a design rather than to say the design
was appropriate for a generic user profile. Small
samples are useful indicators. Hard core human factors
people could go farther with more definitive studies
with the same set up if they were involved. Although
the ADIDA project was focused on designing for a
complex and dynamic operating situation such an
approach would be useful in less demanding situations
as well. The firm Design Science creates control
interfaces on things like vacuum cleaners that feel
and sound like the real thing. What is needed (and
what we were developing) is a capacity for simulation
built into the design process. We tried not to let our
graduate student's complete a thesis without a user
evaluation of whatever they were doing. (Software,
interface, etc.)

Best regards,

Chuck

Dr. Charles Burnette
234 South Third Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Tel: +215 629 1387
e-mail: [log in to unmask]

-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhDs
in Design
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Erik
Stolterman
Sent: Sunday, October 26, 2003 8:26 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Design-focused research methods (was: An
interesting
study....)


Dear Rob and Terry

Regarding the notion of "Quick and Dirty Research".
Rob raises a good
point when stating that there is a need for "fast
research techniques
which could validate and direct a concurrent design
process". To me the
major difference between such design oriented research
methods and
traditional scientific methods is the purpose. In
design the purpose is
to guide the design process, that is to reach an
intended goal within
allocated time and resources, while in science the
purpose is, of
course, to find the truth. This makes it possible for
designers to both
develop and use other forms of inquiry, manifested in
other forms of
methods, sometimes more "quick and dirty". But, maybe
we should not see
that as bringing science into the design process,
instead we might see
it as developing methods suitable for design inquiry.
I do belive that
designers use a lot of methods like that, but they are
seldom
recognized as such since they don't have the status or
"rigidness" of
accepted research methods. Research on design inquiry
could be a way to
both make these approaches visible and also to make
the recognized, not
as badly performed sceintific methods, but as
effecient and effective
design methods.

Erik Stolterman

--------------------
Erik Stolterman
Informatics
Umeå University
S-901 87 Umeå
Sweden

Phone: +46 (0)90-7865531
Email: [log in to unmask]
Homepage: http://www.informatik.umu.se/~erik
Advanced Design Institute:
http://www.advanceddesign.org=