Dear Terry
Terence Love wrote:
> There has often been mooted a 'design' way of doing research. There has been a lot of verbal hand waving yet no one has yet put up a plausible well -defined model. Until that happens, as design researchers, it would seem to make most sense to use what is i.e the research methods a used by other disciplines.
to me, the 'problem' of thinking/defining 'design research' is not methodological. so, i readily agree with you that design researchers can learn from other disciplines when it comes to research methods. no problem there.
the problem i see is a matter of perspective or approach to research and this perspective will underlie the epistemological, methodological and ethical issues in relation to design research.
Karel has spoken about the gap between scientific knowledge and the knowledge designers need to design. to me, he hit the nail on its head. other designers have made simliar observations about information design and ergonomics research (Zwaga et al. 1999), architectural design and environmental behavior studies (Thomas 1993), scientific knowledge and building design (Bayazit 1993), and product design and various user models provided by ergonomists, marketing professionals and behaviorial scientists (Hasdogan 1996). This problem of mismatch between design and research in general is referred to the ‘applicability gap’ (Mitchell 1993) or the problem of ‘information thrown over the wall’. This problem is known among designers for quite some time.
the common responses to this problem include 1 to increase communication between the design discipline and scientific desciplines. 2 complaints that designers don't know how to make use of scientific knowledge, 3 ignore.
there is a gap between scientific research and design practice. taking a scientific approach to design research is unlikely to solve the problem.
so while no one has put up a plausible well-defined model for a 'design' way of doing research, i believe that no one should try to discourage it either.
i am ducking too. rosan
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