Dear Victor,

Three things came to mind thinking about your comments. First, contrary to
your opinion, was an awareness of how massively design practices have been
changed over the last 50 years as a result of design-focused research
across many fields. Second, is the awareness of how little designers
themselves have contributed to this process. Third, is an awareness of how
little designers influence the choice and characterisitics of products that
are available in the world.

These realities contrast with some of the foundations of what you are
saying, and point to deeper questions for design research

Best regards,
Terry





-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related
research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Victor
Margolin
Sent: Monday, 6 August 2007 9:42 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: PHD-DESIGN Digest - 3 Aug 2007 to 4 Aug 2007 (#2007-179)

Dear Ken:
Thank you for your post. After almost thirty years in the field of design
history and design research I am probably as well aware as anyone that
studies of designed objects and their effects are being done outside of
design. In fact Donald Norman, now known to many design researchers came
from HCI and made a big splash with his contention that many products are
badly designed. His subsequent work on computers and other products has also
been useful. I can cite also Paul Atkinson's studies of computer technology
and its history published in Design Issues and the Journal of Design
History. Paul and others have raised interesting questions about why
developments in a particular technology went a certain way.
I don't remember ever hearing anyone enunciate that the study of the
design process was the central core of design research.
Perhaps you could trace the origin of that assumption for me. Many years ago
when Bruce Archer made his taxonomy of topics for design research, design
process was only one of them. I am also not clear how some of the studies of
the design process that we read about help designers. Can we really say that
the work of Donald Schon has changed the way designers work? And who else's
work has changed the way designers work. I'm sure some has but I don't see
that the kinds of studies I know about are as closely allied to changes in
practice as you seem to be suggesting.
At the design research conferences I have been to, there are rarely
any papers on products and their social consequences, particularly papers
that critique designs, particularly more complex ones like computer systems,
the web, trains, cars, transport systems.
These are the kinds of papers that lead to social change. In fact, products
hit the market with very little critique except for off line grumbling. I
would like to see more discussion of this kind of work on this list. There
has been little so far. Also, there are intense discussions going on about
the ongoing design of the worldwide web from the point of view of software
integration, capabilities, social interactions. This is a huge topic. Why
don't we see more of it on our list? I will stand by my original contention
that design researchers, at least the ones within the fold of this list,
have pretty much ignored research on products and their effects. In fact, it
is reasonable to assume that they would have a better insight into the
products themselves as they discuss their consequences than social
scientists for whom the artifacts may be simply means to social change. More
comments welcome.
Victor Margolin