I’m looking forward to Don’s fleshing out one of Yogi Berra’s classic quotes. A variation of "When you come to a fork in the road, take it" seems to be one of the Berraisms that Berra actually said. Apparently either choice in the directions he was giving would lead someone back to Highland Avenue in Montclair, New Jersey so the "take it" suggestion was, in fact, quite reasonable. It may make sense in a discussion of evidence based design.
My position on evidence-based pretty-much-anything is the university slogan from the movie Animal House: "Knowledge is Good." (No. It’s not always felicitous or freeing or encouraging or other good stuff but it *is* good.)
I think a lot of negative reaction to EBD (and some of the positive reaction) is based on varying assumptions about what knowledge or evidence means (and/or what knowledge or evidence is helpful for a given situation.) That gets us back to Birger’s very good question which I will not even attempt to answer.
I largely agree with Don’s posts on this but I believe a good guru understands the true needs of people and society and, assuming that she wants to retain that good guru status, will keep developing and using methods to advance that understanding. So the guru vs. EBD thing is based on a long tradition of conman-as-guru rather than a real binary choice.
Many times a fork represents a decision that could fairly be described as one between knowledge/evidence and some arbitrary preference; often the latter won’t get you anywhere close to Highland Avenue. But sometimes neither route is more clearly based in anything you know. In that case, knowing about how far away Highland Avenue is and how much gas you have in the car allows you to decide whether to take a chance or to stop and discover some method of logical choice. (I have good friends in Montclair so I’ll resist making any cheap jokes about ending up in Jersey either way.)
Another small quibble with Don’s comments: "If you teach in a university, nobody will complain about your lack of real-world understanding." I do and I will. And I’m not completely alone. (I’ll also complain about a lot of stuff done on the basis of supposed "real-world understanding" and when I have time, I can parse the "real world" phrase until everyone cries or walks out so maybe I’m just a complainer.)
The what knowledge or evidence is helpful for a given situation part is the trick. That question probably explains why little warning lights go off for me when someone says "evidence based design," bigger ones when someones says "best practices," and even bigger ones when anyone completely rejects either.
By the way, Don’s comments about reading and editing by a variety of people struck home with me. It is great when readers/editors say "You can say this more clearly" or such but when someone says "You can say x more clearly" or ""You’re wrong about x" and, in fact, I was trying to communicate y, that’s when I’m really, really thankful.
So speaking of thankful, please let me take this opportunity to thank not only those I just described but everyone on this list who has taught me so much in 2015 (and for many years before.)
Gunnar
Gunnar Swanson
East Carolina University
graphic design program
http://www.ecu.edu/cs-cfac/soad/graphic/index.cfm
[log in to unmask]
Gunnar Swanson Design Office
1901 East 6th Street
Greenville NC 27858
USA
http://www.gunnarswanson.com
[log in to unmask]
+1 252 258-7006
-----------------------------------------------------------------
PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]>
Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design
Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|