Dear David,
Thanks for this reminder. Quite right. The book you and Ruth Shrensky
wrote on medicine instructions and labels is a perfect example.
There are other good examples, though not as many as there should be.
Much of the work done at Nielsen Norman is a case in point. I'd love to
see a literature review on good examples, accessible reports, etc.
Yours,
Ken
>>> David Sless <[log in to unmask]> 27/10/08 9:22 PM >>>
--snip--
As you probably know, we have been doing 'evidence-based' design and
design research for some time. So, I support your call.
Always eager to blow our own trumpet, here is a recent example—a paper
by my colleague Alex Tyers:
http://www.communication.org.au/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=86
Like all of our case histories, this recent paper is evidence-based. A
version of it will appear next year in Information Design Journal—a
place where evidence-based design and design research has been
published for nearly 30 years.
In our field the research questions have progressed with the research.
In the 1970s and 1980s we collected evidence that enabled us to
demonstrate that the application of certain design methods and
techniques led to better outcomes than using other methods and
techniques.
Thus, by the early 1990s we were claiming, based on the evidence, that
the application of certain methods could ROUTINELY lead to better
outcomes.
In the mid to late 1990s we explored how we might not just aim for
'better' outcomes, but outcomes at a particular level. Some of our
work, which has influenced government regulation, has done just that.
Our current research question is concerned with identifying and
creating the context in which good design can be institutionalised.
Most of this is covered in our case histories—a resource that is
freely available to the design and design research community:
http://www.communication.org.au/modules/smartsection/category.php?categoryid=33
I should add in parentheses that I have been somewhat disappointed in
recent published work on design of and in institutions Lots of
interesting ideas, but remarkably free of evidence. Your call is
timely, and we need to do better, or face the consequences—our death.
As I suggested in a recent blog:
http://www.communication.org.au/dsblog/?p=28
--snip--
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