I believe everyone in the design community would benefit from a book by
Caroline Whitbeck, Ethics in Engineering Practice and Research. Also, I can
recommend Carl Mitcham (ed), The Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and
Ethics.
Whitbeck's argument that ethics is a form of design is very interesting.
Richard
Richard Buchanan
Carnegie Mellon University
On 4/8/07 9:36 AM, "Ken Friedman" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear Terry,
>
> Herbert Simon's definition of design -- to "[devise] courses of
> action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones" --
> covers many fields. These include engineering, management, even, for
> some, nursing or law.
>
> In my slightly expanded definition, "design is goal-oriented process
> to solve problems, meet needs, improve situations, or create
> something new or useful."
>
> Design research is any form of research that contributes to those goals.
>
> I'm not worried that some things we do in design research might be
> considered engineering research by some, psychology research by
> others, or art history by still others. It is in the nature of an
> interdisciplinary field that others may do some of the very same
> things we do from other perspectives. Even when we inquire into the
> same objects using the same methods, it may be design research here
> and architectural history or semiotics or logistics or applied
> mathematics from another viewpoint.
>
> You already know when asked to give their fields of expertise in
> design research without being constrained by a protocol or forced
> answers, people give hundreds of different answers. We have over
> seven hundred of these in our inventory alone.
>
> I find definitions useful to the degree that they help us to focus
> and move forward. Some definitions constrain us to limits that fail
> to reflect the actual territory in a useful way. To say, "this is
> design research" and "that is engineering research" is not helpful in
> a world where engineers practice design. Engineering is one form of
> design, and therefore engineering research may be one kind of design
> research. But I could also demonstrate many kinds of design research
> that "[generate] knowledge about ... materials, artifacts, processes,
> programs, and systems, about their properties and behavior, about
> their effects in and on the world, and about the variant and
> invariant relations among them, independent as well as contingent"
> even though they may NOT be engineering research.
>
> Warm wishes,
>
> Ken
>
>
> Terry Love wrote:
>
> Hi Ken,
> You say
> "one issue in design research involves generating knowledge about ...
> materials, artifacts, processes, programs, and systems, about their
> properties and behavior, about their effects in and on the world, and about
> the variant and invariant relations among them, independent as well as
> contingent."
>
> Many would argue that is the combined role of the various forms of
> engineering research. How does design research differ?
>
> All the best,
>
> Terry
>
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