Hi Marianne,
You said “the strand of intellectual and physical work around the impact assessment (and presentation) of the artefact on the environment.”
I think that this ‘strand’ is about not only assessing the artifact but also producing knowledge that can be utilized in other design activities and problems. Otherwise, the research work would only be mere evaluation of the specific artifact. In other words, the design research outcome should report knowledge that other design practitioners may apply or design researchers may accept or challenge. It seems to me that our community still does not have an agreement in how to do this.
I am doing my PhD and my research methods include ‘research through design’. I have been challenged by the lack of established methods in our field. This may be either an advantage or disadvantage. I think other PhD students in other disciplines may have easier to decide about the research methods. For example, a experimental psychologist may not have such difficult task.
I am looking into visual rhetorical appeals for people with limited functional health literacy. I am following a three-stage process. First, I am studying the visual rhetorical appeals in successful pieces of visual communication. Second, I am designing a mobile web application about childhood obesity prevention for parents with limited health literacy. The app will have three setup modes or versions, each with dominance of a rhetorical appeal (rational, emotional, credibility). Third, I will evaluate using mixed methods (QUAL quan). I expect to find meaningful conclusions about using visual rhetorical appeals to design communication for people with limited functional literacy.
Notice that the second stage is research through design. I am using this method in a particular way and understand that other researchers have used in different ways. The main goal of the second stage is, while designing a useful, usable, desirable app, to create ‘testable instruments’ for the third stage, which will answer my main research question. However, I am often writing notes with reflections of my design process and plan to report them.
I would recommend keeping the design project small unless you have large budget or team support. While we may want to create a design artifact with great impact, keep in mind that the research questions are more important. I’d say that this is the toughest part. I also recommend reviewing empirical and naturalistic methods and seeing how your research may include any of them. I do not think we should shy away from 'research through design' but have caution using it.
I hope this is a useful example for your question. I briefly look at iFloor example in Koskinen et al. book and it seems that the PhD theses have other questions beyond the design problem itself.
Best,
G. Mauricio Mejía
Assistant professor, University of Caldas, Colombia
PhD in Design candidate, University of Minnesota, USA
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