Francois (& Eduardo) said:
"....in other parts of the world a goal of design research can be
understanding how to design beautifully...", and most importantly, understanding how to design USEFUL things..."
Somehow I don't think "beautifully" and "useful" (or for that matter "things") help with the meta question/s, although they raise
interesting questions of meaning in themselves.
I feel that my distilled version of Kens proposal - "a goal of design research can be understanding how to design" is OK as a
starting point for describing a meta-inquiry but it doesn't say very much about where the problems lie. Ken's more complex version
was going that way but I resist the idea that Herbert Simon is an authority on designing as we have learned to know it.
So I have been thinking that, even though I don't feel particularly confident, maybe I should set out the things that interest me
as overarching issues:
Understanding Designing
Not much to say here other than that it seems to be a very densely packed minefield. I've lost the will to follow the alphabet
soup debate, and I don't like the conflation of aimlessness and play, but I'm intrigued by the fact that Henrik Gedenryd chose
designing as his arena to explore theories of cognition. (yes I know I keep going on about Gedenryd but I'm loyal to my heroes)
Interdisciplinarity
As a research community we are very diverse in the "kinds" of designing that we associate with, the contexts in which we design,
the research methods and knowledge that we draw on and the people we associate with. Since interdisciplinarity is a very hot issue
in my country and my university I am particularly interested in the idea of designing as the "glue" in interdisciplinary life. I
found Richard Buchanan's assertion that designing might be the "last liberal art" very striking (well it's flattering to think of
yourself in that way).
Designers and everybody else
As long as designing is regarded as what designers do to provide artefacts that will be desired/useful/helpful/whatever I think we
are missing the point about our post-industrial role. In the last decade it has seemed to me that helping other people to express
themselves is a much more interesting, ethical and progressive position for designers to take. Interestingly that puts designing
of learning right at the sharp end although I feel that educators (and health professionals, and managers and...?) usually fail to
appreciate the degree to which the designed environment affects people's "performance".
best wishes from Airstrip One (it feels very like that at the moment)
Chris
***************************************
Professor Chris Rust
Head of Art and Design Research Centre
Sheffield Hallam University
Psalter Lane
Sheffield S7 1SF, UK
+44 114 225 2686
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www.chrisrust.net
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