Thanks to everyone who has replied to my request on- and off-list.
Mark, your suggestions below are very helpful and thought-provoking, thank you.
They raise further questions in my mind and I'd be interested in your (and others') thoughts.
I have previously downloaded a copy of your iD cards and I agree that they are a great example of how academic research (i.e. your PhD work) can contribute to design practice (i.e. through offering useful information on methods for conducting design). However, I see my area of investigation as different to this. I am interested in the research that design practitioners read or conduct personally.
As I see it, for your cards to fall into this category, I would either need to regard them as a form of research literature that designers could read to support their decision making, or a tool for enabling designers to conduct their own research. From reading your cards, I think of them as being useful tools for practicing design (how to sketch, draw, model and prototype in various ways), not tools for conducting research. This leads to the can of worms of whether design activity such as sketching qualifies as a form of research. I personally see them as different activities with different purposes, but am interested in reading opposing arguments.
Your cards remind me of IDEO's well-known Method Cards. I see these as a mixture of research and design methods. For example, I regard all of the methods they include in the category of 'look' to be methods of research (e.g. rapid ethnography, behavioural mapping), but I see many of the methods in the 'try' category as design development methods (e.g. prototyping and 'try it yourself'). Again, I'm interested in others' opinions.
In relation to the practice-based PhDs you've mentioned, I tend to regard these as not being examples of research supporting practice in the sense I am investigating. Based on what I've read about the distinctions between practice-led research and research-led practice, I'd regard these examples as being in the former category, as they are activities conducted with the primary interest of producing a research outcome (thesis, exegesis, general principles for the industry, gaining a research degree etc.). I'm aware that they often also produce a design outcome as well, and that this constitutes a form of R&D, but I think it's hard to argue that such long-term projects as PhDs are examples of research supporting routine professional practice.
I appreciate your suggestions as these issues are central to defining my topic and would love to hear further or contrasting thoughts.
Best wishes,
Emma
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From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Mark Evans [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, 11 April 2014 3:21 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Request for references on benefits of research for practice
Emma
The only practitioners in the visually creative design disciplines that I am aware of who have taken to “reading research literature or conducting research to support professional practice” are those who undertook practice as part of their PhD. This group does appear to fit within the scope of your study and 14 case studies that include the personal motivation for undertaking practice to support data collection plus images of outcomes are available at http://lboro.ac.uk/microsites/lds/dprg-casestudies/
You ask the question, “If reading and conducting research really are effective or ineffective for supporting or improving professional practice, there should be empirical evidence to support this”. I recently designed the iD Cards design tool app to support understanding and communication during product development. This has been validated, branded and promoted by the Industrial Designers Society of America and is available as a free download via their website at http://www.idsa.org/id-cards-now-available-app This is only one case study but it does demonstrate the contribution that academic research can make to professional practice. There are numerous design tools out there, but the key for me is whether or not they are actually used or supported by the practitioner community that they claim to support.
Best wishes for your research.
Mark
Dr Mark Evans
Reader in Industrial Design
Design Practice Research Group Leader
Loughborough Design School
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/lds/research/groups/design-practice/
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