Dear Terence,
you've confused the names, Meredith is the author for one *reference*,
Constanza Miranda is my name... I'm working on the evidence you're asking
for, and I'm sure I'm not the only one,
Best,
On 8 April 2010 19:53, Terence Love <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear Meredith,
> Thank you for your message. You express exactly the general state of mental
> play of the design field on this issue .
> " Visuals ... have a huge potential when we are talking about understanding
> complex problems" and "... *may* [my emphasis] be more than just
> representations", Visuals *may* "... have the potential for predicting
> directions or outcomes"
>
> This has been the speculation for decades. All of these are tentative and
> appear as yet to be without evidence that visuals can actually do these
> things. I'm wondering if they are simply wishful thinking and false claims?
>
> A test: "In complex design situations (multi-feedback loop and more than 3
> dimensions) is there ANY evidence visuals can accurately predict the
> behaviour of dynamic design outcomes?
>
> If anyone has any evidence, I'd be very interested to see it as it would
> open up a significant new area of design education and practice. It would
> also open the door to Visual Design being able to start to justify claims
> that design thinking approaches apply to more complex areas such as
> business
> strategy and other real world complex design situations.
>
> Best wishes,
> 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
> Constanza
> Miranda
> Sent: Friday, 9 April 2010 1:03 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Are visual approaches to design outdated?
>
> Hi Terence,
>
> Actually I'm doing research in this area. Visuals, which is one of the
> knowledge evidence in design research, in my opinion, have a huge potential
> when we are talking about understanding complex problems regarding the
> design interaction not just in the computer, but as Meredith Davis
> mentions,
> outside of them. Complexity regarding: access to particular communities, a
> diversity of disciplines working together or just networked individuals.
> This is the new scenario that design educators should acknowledge.
> Something
> more than a "trend", but a new conception of the discipline. We can go back
> to Sapient's experience models, that though, they were born for rapid
> business cycles, they can be a referent for the applied world in complex
> and
> interdisciplinary areas like public service. Visuals may be more than just
> representations. They might be used as models [simulations or theoretical],
> something that Hugh Dubberly has been addressing since around 2001, if not
> earlier. In this form, they have the potential for predicting directions or
> outcomes and, depending if the analysis is driven by statistical or more
> qualitative approaches, they might be more or less reliable.
>
> Best,
>
> Davis, Meredith
> 2008 Toto, I'Ve Got a Feeling we'Re Not in Kansas Anymore. Interactions
> 15(5):28-34
>
>
>
> On 8 April 2010 09:51, Terence Love <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > Hi David,
> > First a big thanks for the pointer to Bob Horn's work.
> > The fundamental issue to be addressed in any kind of design (and often
> not
> > addressed by graphic designers) is accurately predicting the behaviour of
> > the outcome. For example, how does one know if a poster and a public
> health
> > promotion program will achieve its aim of reducing smoking by 50%? Why
> did
> > or didn't the design produce the right outcome? To ask these questions
> > about
> > behaviour is central to design as a profession and to development of
> > suitable design methods, design processes and design education. Many
> early
> > engineering design methods to predict behaviour were visual. With
> increased
> > complexity, they ran out of steam which is why engineering designers now
> > use
> > different methods that primarily use visual for input and final
> > presentation.
> >
> > Bob Horn's work is tremendously useful and interesting. Thank you for
> > reminding me about it. I remember his hypertext book in the late 80s.Bob
> > Horn's visuals and visual language approach however are not about
> > predicting behaviour of designs in the manner of a design method, nor
> > primarily about predicting the outcomes of complexity (many feedback
> > loops).
> > Their main role is knowledge mapping to make complicated information
> > (more
> > bits) easier to access and think about. They do this in part by acting
> as
> > an external memory store in the manner similar to that proposed by Tony
> > Buzan some years ago with mind maps. They are primarily visual
> > representations of knowledge content rather than design methods that
> > predict
> > behaviour. Similar, though less attractive approaches were developed in
> the
> > 60-s and 70s in the 'for beginners' comic books (e.g. Foucault for
> > Beginners
> > and Marx for Beginners etc), soft systems CATWOE maps, criteria
> maps(which
> > echo critical path maps), logic maps, decision tree maps, group decision
> > making support diagrams and flow diagrams.
> > Horn's description of the Cognome visual language project and problems it
> > faces, identifies the same limitations and problems as above
> >
> http://stanford.edu/~rhorn/a/recent/VUscnrioVisualLanguage.pdf<http://stanford.edu/%7Erhorn/a/recent/VUscnrioVisualLanguage.pdf>
> <http://stanfo
> rd.edu/%7Erhorn/a/recent/VUscnrioVisualLanguage.pdf>except he
> > hasn't yet added the behaviour prediction problem as his aims as a design
> > method don't reach that far... yet. It is, however, implicit in his top
> > long range goal.
> > For improving the quality of design activity, the paper on his site that
> > really made me sit up was the one of images that identify what we don't
> > know
> >
> http://stanford.edu/~rhorn/a/recent/artclUnknowns.pdf<http://stanford.edu/%7Erhorn/a/recent/artclUnknowns.pdf>
> <http://stanford.edu/%7
> Erhorn/a/recent/artclUnknowns.pdf>
> > A paper that might be useful for design research PhD students is on how
> to
> > conduct research to get little or no effect
> >
> http://stanford.edu/~rhorn/a/recent/artclHowtoGetLttleorNoEffc.pdf<http://stanford.edu/%7Erhorn/a/recent/artclHowtoGetLttleorNoEffc.pdf>
> <http://st
> anford.edu/%7Erhorn/a/recent/artclHowtoGetLttleorNoEffc.pdf>
> > Amazing. Horn's recent papers and diagrams are at
> >
> http://stanford.edu/~rhorn/a/recent/<http://stanford.edu/%7Erhorn/a/recent/>
> <http://stanford.edu/%7Erhorn/a/recent/>
> > Best wishes and thanks again,
> > 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 David
> > Sless
> > Sent: Thursday, 8 April 2010 3:14 PM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: Are visual approaches to design outdated?
> >
> > Terry et al,
> > A provocative question. I would suggest a resounding NO. I think we are
> > just
> > beginning to scratch the surface of possibilities in visual approaches.
> The
> > work of Bob Horn just mentioned is an example of this. I think we are at
> a
> > very early but highly productive stage in this kind of work. Look at
> > argumentation mapping as another example. Or the growing uses of MRI.
> >
> > BTW, in talking about complex systems, stakeholders, relationships,
> > feedback
> > loops and multidimensional problems you are using some of the prime
> > metaphors of our time.
> >
> > David
> > --
> >
> > blog: www.communication.org.au/dsblog
> > web: http://www.communication.org.au
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Constanza S. Miranda M.
> PhD Student NCSU-Design
> www.innovacionsocial.cl
>
> "Develop Design, Design to Develop"
>
>
>
--
Constanza S. Miranda M.
PhD Student NCSU-Design
www.innovacionsocial.cl
www.wikiexplora.com
"Develop Design, Design to Develop"
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