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Dear James, Bourgone, Terry, and List Thanks for raising this topic, it's close to my heart and my research interests. To directly respond to your original question re: the perceptions practicing designers hold of academic design journals, James, I'm aware of only one study "An Annotated design research bibliography: by and for the design community" by Chayutsahakij et al. (2002) which I believe Sharon Poggenpohl was referring to when she claimed "designers don't read" (2010). Some of the literature I've found for my PhD study relates to your second question of the broader issue of evidence for research's impact on practice, and also to Bourgone's research and I hope might be of use. For my PhD I am currently conducting a study that aims to discover if, how and why professional designers in Australia engage with research as part of their practice, as well as whether they value engaging with research, regardless of whether they are presently able to use it. I am focussing on communication designers specifically, although I hope the findings will be useful for other specialisms as well. The definition of what constitutes 'research' is a absolutely central to my research questions (and is a separate topic I'd like to open for the lists' thoughts in the not-too-distant future). So far, all of the literature I've found that calls for designers to 'use' research refers to either practitioners personally carrying out investigations, or reading research findings to inform their work. After much consideration, I have arrived at the opinion that employing tools, methods or protocols within design practice does not constitute a practitioner engaging with research, even if the tool/method/protocol is the product of someone else's research. That said, I'd be very interested to hear opposing arguments to this. Terry, if I've understood your previous post correctly, you're suggesting that design research has had significant impact on design practice through the tools and systems that research has lead to the development of, and that are now widely employed by designers. I would agree that research has affected design practice this way, however, I see this as a slightly different issue to that which James and Bourgone have raised. I see their original issue as a question of whether designers themselves engage with research, which as I said, I believe could only be through personally conducting investigations, or reading research findings. Employing tools (whether they are the outcome of research or not) does not constitute engaging with research as far as I can see, but I'd love to hear if, and if so why, you disagree. In terms of relevant empirical evidence of if, how or why designers engage with research, I have found very little, and this is the knowledge gap my study aims to address. Most lit is based on the author's opinion or personal experience alone (however qualified and extensive or unqualified and limited that may be). I have found informal discussions that suggest designers love engaging with research (as Bourgone has suggested in the last paragraph of his post) and also suggestions that many hate it, such as recent online articles by Raisanen (2012) and the subsequent comments. I've only found two empirical studies of what designers actually do in terms of engaging with research. One claims designers use research a lot, stating "81% of practicing designers engage in research on a regular basis" (Manfra, 2005), while the other, by Paul Nini, suggests that designers' use of research is limited and needs to be increased (1996). Despite these being the only two studies I've been able to find that offer empirical evidence of what design practitioners do in terms of engaging with research, there is no shortage of literature that argues designers do not engage with research enough, and need to do it more (if you want examples, let me know). I would be very interested to read opposing opinions, further literature if anyone knows of any, and to follow others' research on this topic if they wish to contact me offline. Thanks again for the discussion. Emma --- Emma Fisher, BA PhD Candidate Faculty of Design Swinburne University of Technology Melbourne, Australia www.swinburne.edu.au/design Chayutsahakij, P., Jeamsinkul, C., Sawasdichal, N., Teeravarunyou, S., & Teixiera, C. (2002). An Annotated design research bibliography: by and for the design community. Visible Language, 36. Manfra, L. (2005, 25th July 2005). School Survey: 2005 Research‹Its Role in North American Design Education. Metropolis Retrieved 28th November 2011, fromhttp://www.metropolismag.com/story/20050725/school-survey-2005 Nini, P. J. (1996). What graphic designers say they do. Information Design Journal, 8, 181-188. doi: 10.1075/idj.8.2.06nin Norman, D. (2010). The research-practice gap: the need for translational developers. Interactions, 17(4), 9-12. doi: 10.1145/1806491.1806494 Norman, D. (2011, 1st August 2011). Act First, Do the Research Later. Retrieved from http://www.core77.com/blog/columns/act_first_do_the_research_later_20051.as p Poggenpohl, S. H. (Writer). (2010). 03_NCNP_Provocation#2: Sharon Poggenpohl [Streaming video]. United States of America: College of Design at North Carolina State University. Raisanen, M. (2012). To Connect With Consumers, Ditch The Focus Groups. Try Acting Instead. Co.Design Retrieved 19th June, 2012, fromhttp://www.fastcodesign.com/1670049/to-connect-with-consumers-ditch-the -focus-groups-try-acting-instead On 9/08/12 3:29 PM, "Terence Love" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >Hi James, > >I remember the keynote and, if I remember right, Don was referring to >cutting-edge innovation and the use by designers of design research in >their thinking, rather than simply ' design research has a limited impact >on design practice'. I seem to remember Don was suggesting science and >engineering comes first to get innovations and design activity comes >later. > >Design research over the last 5 decades HAS had significant effects on >design practice and design outcomes - but through a different route. > >Instead, the outcomes of design research have been mainly embodied in >computer-aided-design software such as Photoshop and Illustrator or on >the more technical side, Autocad, Solidworks and Revit. > >The outcome has been very significant increases in the quality of design >outcomes, significant shortening of design cycles, improvements in the >reliability of designs, reduction in design failures, and, significant >for designers themselves, reductions in numbers of designers needed. > >Developments over the last two decades have now reached the point of >computerised automation of creative design activity in areas such as such >as Graphic Design. > >An example of an outcome of design research in this area is 'Gaudii' (C. >Glez-Morcillo et al (2010). Gaudii: An Automated Graphic Design Expert >System, Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Innovative Applications of >Artificial Intelligence Conference (IAAI-10), pp. 1775-1780. Available >https://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/IAAI/IAAI10/paper/view/1550/2354 ) >There are many other similar initiatives across the fields of design. > >This suggests two significant challenges: > >1. What should designers be learning to stay ahead of this radical change? >2. What should design schools be teaching to keep even further ahead of >these radical game changing outcomes? > >The real challenge is for design educations as design programs need in >knowledge terms to be at least 5 years ahead in terms of teaching the new >skills designers will need to use - just because of the lag of education >systems. > >Best wishes, >Terence >== >Dr Terence Love, FDRS, AMIMechE, PMACM, MISI >PhD, B.A. (Hons) Eng, P.G.C.E >PO Box 226, Quinns Rocks, Western Australia 6030 >[log in to unmask] +61 (0)4 3497 5848 >== > > > > > > > > > >-----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 James >Self >Sent: Thursday, 9 August 2012 10:28 AM >To: Dr Terence Love >Subject: Relationship Between Design Research & Practice > >Dear All, > >Building upon Friedman et al's (2011) study - exploring quality >perception of design journals - I'm interested in looking at the >perceptions practicing designers hold of academic design journals. > >Back in 2009 (iasdr09, Seoul) Don Norman stood up and claimed design >research has a limited impact on design practice. Could anyone share any >references they have which relate to the relationship between design >research and practice (generally) and industrial design research and >practice specifically? > >Many Thanks, > >James.