Dear Mauricio,
I think you are absolutely right.
I assure you, though extreme your awe might have been, it probably doesn't compare to what I felt when I witnessed appaling displays of utter ineptitude pass up as masterclasses by "Doctors in Design", which is far more painful...
To this date, I have yet to see an instance of "practice-based research" in design.
But I think there is still hope...
In this regard, and regarding research in art and design in general, I found this book very helpful:
Gray, Carole and Julian Malins. Visualizing Research: A Guide to the Research Process in Art and Design. Farnham: Ashgate, 2004.
(I think there's an ebook version now)
This was done by PhD advisors after a few years of doctoral research, so it reports on real work besides providing guidelines and theory. However, it reports many research of that type Ken mentions, which is mostly useless to others.
Another shortcoming I find in this type of research is that it is sometimes too close to anthropology or sociology, in a way that IMHO is damaging to design (maybe unwittingly, maybe with a conscious socio-political agenda). We are all well aware of the border skirmishes that plague our field, so I think it is not in our best interest as designers to see those borders eroded by research done inside the field.
So, besides what was already forwarded by Ken, I would add that every research project in design must answer this "inner" question:
--What is the best place for this research project?
If the answer is "history", "literature", "sociology", "psychology", "anthropoly"... then something is definitely wrong.
Best regards,
==================================
Carlos Pires
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Design & New Media MFA // Communication Design PhD Student @ FBA-UL
Check the project blog:
http://thegolemproject.com
On 04/03/2015, at 21:34, G. Mauricio Mejía wrote:
> *New subject line corrected
>
> Dear list members,
>
> In my department, we have a PhD program in design and we are always discussing what is and what is not design research. There are several students that hope to use practice as the central part of the research activity and some have been interested in approaches such as “research through design” and “research-creation”. I argue that practice can be part of research when practice activities serve research purposes; in other words, engaging in practice may allow the researcher to answer certain types of questions or provide scenarios or products to test hypotheses. I add that “research through design” and “research-creation” are not, yet, mature approaches to reliably use them in PhD level research. Zimmerman, Stolterman, and Forlizzi (2010) identified three obstacles of research through design: a romantic view of design; theory is not an intended outcome; the need of a standard to document the design process. These are large challenges.
>
> I have seen, with awe, in this list and elsewhere many events and calls for researchers and authors using “research through design” and “research-creation” approaches.
>
> Is the design research community close to deal with Zimmerman and colleagues’ obstacles? Does anyone know of recent and relevant literature on this issue? This has been previously discussed in this list, but it would be interesting to update the discussion or know current developments on design research epistemology and methodology.
>
> Thanks.
>
> G. Mauricio Mejía, PhD
> Associate professor University of Caldas, Colombia
> @mmejiaramirez
>
>
> Zimmerman, J., Stolterman, E., & Forlizzi, J. (2010). An Analysis and Critique of Research through Design: towards a formalization of a research approach (pp. 310–319). Presented at the DIS 2010, Aarhus, Denmark: ACM Press.
>
>
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