> I think Ken opens up for my position when he writes:
"Designers are action oriented, and
the passion that is natural to activists sometimes runs ahead of the
analytical skill required for philosophical inquiry."
This seems to be a generalisation and a bit out of touch with what is
going on in industry today. These days designers inlarge corporations
are doing a lot of analytic systematic inquiry using techniques
developed by Phd Level scientists like Bryan Byrne. Large complicated
multidisiplinary projects involve hundreds of stages and people and
could not be competed successsfully without an analytic and systematic
approach in the real world. The inquiry is conducted under demanding
budget and time constraints and the results are measured by their
success in the market place. In large projects for large corporations
the time and money spent on the research phase of a project can equal or
exceed the traditional design phases and is conducted by individuals
trained in anthropology, sociology and design. Design courses like the
one at IIT and Carnegie Mellon target this Research area of the processs
in their traning for designers. Many large consultancies and
manufacturers have research departments that conduct rigorous appled
inquiry using the best methods known to science and design. Traditional
research methods sometimes do not work because of the need for inquiry
to be conducted interactively with the design process with the target of
the research changing as feedback on the changing design is received.
The short time scales require the need to be guided by sometimes non
binary answers to questions. It requires learning for someone to move
from academic style of research into an industry style of research. New
methods need to be developed and applied. People like Bryan and Susan
Squires are pioneering these new methods.
______________________________
R o b C u r e d a l e
Professor, Chair Product Design
College for Creative Studies Detroit
201 East Kirby
Detroit MI 48202-4034
Phone: 313 664 7625
Fax: 313 664 7620
email: [log in to unmask]
http://www.ccscad.edu
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