ken,
since you are so keen on etymology, don't forget that 'fact" derives from
the latin facere, something made -- invented, constructed, and used.
all facts are made up, often institutionalized in discursive practices.
what you describe as fact (hand washing preventing the transmission of
germs) is constructed on a history of other constructions like germs,
conditions of their reproduction, hygiene, medical practices, etc. they do
not come from nowhere.
also, all facts are stated in language. unattended nature does not know
facts only present happenings
see ludwig fleck on the social construction of syphilis whose work gave rise
to thomas kuhn's scientific revolutions.
klaus
-----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 Ken
Friedman
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 2:32 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Evidence-Based Design
Hi, Sarah, Peter, David, Klaus & Co.,
Lots of useful posts since last I checked in. I find myself in agreement
with much of what is said. I use the term "evidence-based" because it seems
useful and because it carries what I see as a valued connection to good
practice. That said, I understand and agree with Sarah's comments -- and
much of what others have said. Perhaps we need a better term.
Clearly, Simon spoke of design sciences as practices, partly heuristic, and
partly rigorous. What Simon proposed was finding out where we could make our
practice more effective through rigor.
On one issue, I'm going to diverge a little from Klaus's view that David was
nit-picking. I felt that David was modest to say that he might have been --
in this case, I don't think he was.
Without arguing that there are many clear examples of cases where evidence
for facts exist as distinct from intepretations, I'm willing to argue that
there are such cases. I will give two such examples, one from medicine, one
from communication design.
In hospitals, we know that neglect of hand washing routines by physicians
and nurses leads to increased infection and disease, and to increase in
death rates, as well as to increase in treatment resistant bacteria.
Whenever hospitals that have been lax in rigorous hand washing before and
after every patient contact adopt a careful and rigorous hand washing
program, these kinds of adverse effects go down.
I'm going to assert that this is a fact for which we have evidence without
regard to how any individual feels about the evidence.
When Ignatz Semmelweiss first asserted the need to wash hands before and
after every patient contact, many physicians argued that this was nonsense,
that there was no evidence for germs. Many claimed that physicians were
gentlemen and by definition they were clean and did not need to wash their
hands.
I'll leave it to every list reader to decide which kind of hospital he or
she would prefer to enter. The evidence for the value of careful hand
washing or sterile operating rooms becomes clear when you have to decide
between the conditions we have today or surgeons wearing frock coats and top
hats, smoking cigars as the cut.
The other example is research on simple legibility. A short while back, I
saw a page set up with red type on a blue background. I argued that this was
illegible. The designer argued that it was eye-catching and attractive and
that readers could read the text easily and without problems. My view is
that research and what we know about legibility would provide evidence that
the designer was simply mistaken.
Most everyone reading this will probably agree -- but that is not the point.
The point is that there are kinds of evidence or facts that involve more
than preferences, taste, or interpretation.
It is clear that it is usually a long way from the wide range of individual
opinion and experience that might affect designerly preferences and user
choices to the clear, established evidence that supports hand washing. In
this sense, I'll go with David, Sarah, and Peter and I'd agree that one
cannot be too strict in an argument for evidence. Experience, understanding,
and many issues come into play. I'll agree with Klaus that many issues
depend on how we see and understand evidence. In some cases -- those I have
given here -- I'll argue that this is independent of individuals, and I'll
assert that certain facts such as germs or optics are what most of us would
call facts.
For me, the hopeful aspect of design research is to do a better job knowing
when we have evidence for our decisions, choices, and practices, so that we
can make better use of experience.
Yours,
Ken
p.s. Hi, Sarah! A long time indeed. Nice to hear from you.
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