Re: concept maps and how design is organized and sorted...
Dear Fil and Chuck,
This is a quick note and late as it is....
I have used concept maps for many years as a design thinking tool, both as a designer and as part of design methodologies taught to students in baccalaureate level design theory and studio courses.
As Fil notes, some of my own research revolves around concept maps. I began with considering their value as design tools, as a means of working out messay thoughts, or as a means of representing and organizing ideas that were unclear or conceptual in nature.I also like the 'free form' nature of concept maps, and I like to use them just to explore, to structure thoughts, ideas or written analysis and to help make sense of concepts that emerge but are difficult to write down in a linear fashion.
More recently I used concept maps in my doctoral work as an analyzing strategy, not intending to incorporate the maps that I generated into the thesis. However, I found out two things: 1)There is an interest in the social sciences for this type of analytic methodology( as a rough method during the analytic process); and 2)renowned researchers in education research such as Joseph Maxwell consider these types of maps useful for working out ideas during the messier phases of an analytic process of inquiry.
I am working on developing these ideas as an advanced analytic research method in qualitative inquiry, as I have found out that in the social sciences design tools such as concept maps are considered useful methods to conceptualize the analysis phase of research, and I am presenting my ideas at a major research education research conference in the United States next year.
Best regards,
Tiiu Poldma, Ph.D.
University of Montreal
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Filippo A. Salustri" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 9:46 AM
> Subject: Re: Capturing design information
>
>
> > Chuck et al,
> >
> > Some of my research moves around the periphery of this matter. I like
> > using wikis and concept maps to represent design information. In one
> > currently funded project, a grad student is looking at the use of concept
> > maps for early design information. As people use concept maps, we hope to
> > study the activities they perform and analyse the results to make
> > recommendations on how design activities can be helped with better tools
> > and methods.
> >
> > I like concept maps and wikis because they're very 'free form' compared to
> > typical other tools engineering designers might use. As a result, one
> > hopes that the organisation of the information emerges from the usage.
> >
> > There's many other people working on aspects of this. EG: Rob Bracewell
> > at Cambridge has a tool called DRed for capturing design rationale in an
> > IBIS-like framework. DRed charts can be thought of as examples of what
> > information design engineers use. If snapshots were taken of DRed charts
> > during their construction/evolution, one might be able to "see" a bit the
> > kinds of activities and order of those activities that occur.
> >
> > Cheers.
> > Fil
|