Hi Erik,
Thanks for your notes and your information that design rationale is used in HCI research, and thanks for raising the topic. I welcome more information about the use of design rationale by design practitioners as well as researchers.
An anecdotal example of the use of design rationale that I heard from nearby:
"A marina had some relatively large underwater pumps that after 10 years needed replacing.
The engineering company that got the maintenance contract were shocked by the price of the original choice of pumps. They could buy much much cheaper pumps that would pump the same amount of water with the same reliability for a fraction of the cost.
The old pumps were replaced with these new more economical pumps, widely regarded as a better choice. The original choice of pumps was regarded as an expensive mistake or even possibly influenced by corruption.
After a short time, extensive complaints about underground noise came in from nearby residents up to a kilometre away.
The original pumps had been chosen specially for their low noise and vibration characteristics.
The new cheaper pumps had to be replaced: an expensive mistake."
Using design rationale methods, the maintenance company would have understood why the original pumps had been chosen and would have avoided this (very) expensive maintenance cost (and might have priced their quote better).
Do you (or does anyone else) have list of design software that captures design rationale information? I haven't found one and as far as I know it is limited to software for architecture / BIM and for software development. (This is in spite of it being identified by design researchers for 3 decades as an important practical element to improve design outcomes.)
In view of its practical importance in co-design and asynchronous design team work, I'm also puzzled as to why design rationale recording has not been part of Design Thinking or Design Process models.
I welcome more information, especially of new developments.
Best wishes,
Terry
==
Dr Terence Love,
School of Design and Built Environment, Curtin University, Western Australia
CEO, Design Out Crime and CPTED Centre
PO Box 226, Quinns Rocks, Western Australia 6030
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ORCID 0000-0002-2436-7566
==
-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Erik Stolterman
Sent: Saturday, 16 February 2019 3:52 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: The changing nature of design arguments
Hi list,
Thanks for all the comments and really valuable feedback. I will briefly go through the comments with a minimal reply (for now).
*Gunnar*: thanks, really interesting and fun text. And highly relevant!
*Luke*: thanks, I will take a closer look at your work, it deserves a closer reading.
*Terence*: yes, design argument and design rationale is often the same thing (I think). Design rationale has also been explored and developed in my field of HCI design, by among other Jack Carroll. I do think that design rationale has often meant the idea that it is possible to capture the design process in such a way the result becomes a clear and rational explanation of the final design. That approach has not really been successful and used in practice.
*David*: thanks and I am interested in the publications you refer to.
*Diane*: thanks, and I think you describe well the true meaning of being human centered in design. But even at the end of such an approach, there is a design (of some kind) that needs to be presented and potentially explained. It is that presentation and explanation that I refer to as design argument.
*Mauricio*: thanks, and yes, there are many forms of design and a wonderful diversity when it comes to who is a designer, but what I refer to, I think, is relevant no matter who the designer is (trained or not, 'real designer'
or not). I agree that the notion of sense-making (as for instance Klaus Krippendorff defines it) is a big part of this.
*Rebecca*: thanks, staying online :-)
More comments are highly welcome.
And have a nice weekend!
Best
Erik
---------------------------------------------------
*Erik Stolterman Bergqvist*
Senior Executive Associate Dean
Professor of Informatics
School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering (SICE) Indiana University, Bloomington http://transground.blogspot.com/
On Fri, Feb 15, 2019 at 2:31 PM Rebecca D Kelly <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Please don't go offline. Folloiwing.
>
>
> Rebecca D Kelly | Assistant Professor
>
> Communications Design
>
> Syracuse University
> College of Visual and Performing Arts
> School of Design
> The Warehouse 350 W. Fayette St.
> Syracuse, New York 13202
>
> @su_commdesign
>
> o 315.443.2455 f 315.443.9688 e [log in to unmask]
>
>
> On 2/14/19, 11:27 PM, "PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of
> PhD studies and related research in on behalf of [log in to unmask]"
> <[log in to unmask] on behalf of [log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> > On 15 Feb 2019, at 7:56 am, Erik Stolterman
> <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> >
> > The
> > show-and explain model means that the designer also engages in
> explaining
> > how they came up with the design, what the process looked like,
> and what
> > testing and evaluation they have done that shows the quality of
> the design.
> > This is pushing many designers to be much more careful with
> their process
> > planning and documentation. And it also forces designers to have
> a broader
> > skill set when it comes to their process. They have to engage in more
> > research like activities.
>
> Erik,
>
> I find this shift interesting. I have come across it too. Indeed,
> I have been a promoter of this shift, with many of my fellow
> information designers feeling uneasy about the shift. I’m happy to
> discuss this further either on or off this list and share some publications with you.
>
> I suspect that this list has had enough of me for a while so I
> suggest off line, unless I’m advised differently.
>
> David
> --
>
>
>
>
>
> blog: http://communication.org.au/blo
> <http://communication.org.au/blo
> >g/
> web: http://communication.org.au <http://communication.org.au/>
>
> Professor David Sless BA MSc FRSA
> CEO • Communication Research Institute •
> • helping people communicate with people •
>
> Mobile: +61 (0)412 356 795
> Phone: +61 (03) 9005 5903
>
> Skype: davidsless
>
> 60 Park Street • Fitzroy North • Melbourne • Australia • 3068
>
>
>
>
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