Dear Terry,
Thanks for your message. You refer to 'text with 62 to 75 characters
per line' as an example of the use of research by design practice.
This is a myth.
a. The research on which this 'rule' is based is severely flawed and
has been debunked decades ago. (Miles Tinker's stuff cannot be
repeated nor checked: it is useless.)
b. This 'rule' was published in typographic manuals well before any
research was done. (See for example: Kurt H. Volk. 1935. Using Type
Correctly. New York: Kurt H. Volk Incorporated. This is probably not
the 'earliest example'.)
c. In practice, this rule is not applied at all. (I've measured
several hundred printed publications: only very few stick to this
'rule'. A very large majority ignores it completely. Published in:
Technical Communication, February 1999, 46(1): 'Typographic
dimensions and conventional wisdom: a discrepancy?'.)
I'm afraid that we've got to come up with better examples for graphic
designers.
Kind regards,
Karel.
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Hi Gunnar,
Thanks for your message. I find that designers appear to enthusiastically
embrace design research.
There seems to be an assumption that the proper way for designers to 'use'
design research is by studying articles and papers about design research.
Designers most commonly use design research, however, by using design
software, using new design methods such as usability testing, and by using
design guidelines such as 'text with 62 to 75 characters per line'. The
outcomes of design research are already very deeply embedded in everything
designers do.
From observation, some designers' lack of enthusiasm for the more formal
sides of design research seems to have been in dealing with the literature
addressing technical issues, mathematics, sociological and psychological
analyses and careful reasoning necessary to get accurate research findings.
Where the design research findings are presented 'on a plate', however, in
for example new Photoshop tools or new iPhone widgets then there appears to
be substantial enthusiasm for the design research outcomes (although the
story is often retold as them being 'design outcomes'!)
Warm regards,
Terry
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