Dear Karel, I take my hat off! Five great ideas for useful software for designers. They are also five great ideas for classic postgraduate design research. All the best, Terry -----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 Karel van der Waarde Sent: Wednesday, 19 August 2009 3:22 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Connecting research to practice/was Who Designs? Terry, As graphic designer, I would like to see - before I integrate it into my practice - the following software. [Of course, this software is not suitable for 'all graphic design projects': many projects can be done without any of these.] For more complex projects, I would like to have: - argument mapping systems. There are some examples in the legal profession that help lawyers to structure their arguments. Something similar for graphic design would be useful. See for example - careful: download starts immediately: http://lpr.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/mgm032?ijkey=GFHrAQMNkJ09woP&keyty pe=ref) - genre comparisons/ pattern comparisons. (There are visual patterns in genres: a newspaper looks like newspaper because ..., an internet shop looks like an internet shop because ... In the short time for a single project, it is rarely possible to collect and compare enough existing examples. It would be nice to have software that compares these patterns. 'Does it still look enough like a newspaper AND is it sufficiently different to distinguish itself?' Especially if it can select too on regional patterns, languages, ...). The other way around would be useful too: template development software. Based on the same collection of genres, it must be possible to automatically develop a range of templates. - situation mapping. Visualising all stakeholders and powers for a single practical area can take years: the underlying forces for the graphic design of a 'taxform' or a 'parking meter receipt' or a 'train driver display' are a combination of dozens of influences. Frequently, there is not 'a single commissioner', but a 'range of influences on commissioners'. Optimizing the combination of different perspectives of stakeholders could be visualized. - professional development strategy. The variation of activities of graphic designers is substantial and making appropriate career decision - after graduation with a BA or MA - is hard. [It is not clear how many formally educated graphic designers leave the profession + it is not known how many graphic designers without formal education work as professionals.] Again, there must be patterns in professional graphic design careers that could be digitally mapped so that decisions about professional development of both individual graphic designers as well as design companies can be based on evidence. [This would help in graphic design education as well ... because it would be possible to provide students with an complete overview of the profession.] - responses from people. Usability testing of graphic design is worthwhile, but the results are only applicable to one specific situation. The validity and application in other projects remains difficult. Something that seems to work in one situation might be applied again, inclusive of its reasoning. A collection of usability testing results with their motivations might be useful. These five examples do not make decisions: that needs to be done by designers. However, if arguments, patterns, situations, professional development and usability results could be collected, compared and made available, I would like to have a look at it for my practice. All five need to be based on research: is any of these examples available already? Kind regards, Karel. [log in to unmask] >> >It would be interesting to, very specifically and with strong evidence-based >justification, identify those areas of design practice that the above is >not true and develop design research in those areas. I'm envisaging >something way on the other side of 'Design as Rhetoric'/'Design as a >systematic process'/'Design as a collaborative social process'. > >If this is possible, it would provide a basis for identifying completely new >pathways in design education that are beyond being design software jockeys >(though my feeling is that being a good design software jockey is a sound >profession) and would help identify which areas of design education to dump >from out of design education courses (rhetoric?). > >Many engineering design courses have faced this problem over the last twenty >years in that there is now much less need for mathematical understanding in >engineering than was previously necessary (those dratted successful design >researchers again!). It has enabled a rethinking of what it means to be a >professional engineering designer/manager and a radical reworking of >engineering education. > >Best wishes, >Terry > >=== > >Jacques wrote: >I regularly need to transfer the >theoretical and philosophical debates of my colleagues, no matter how valid >they are, into a position that is more pragmatic and somehow connected to >the realities of contemporary professional design practice. > >This conundrum, that is, the apparent disconnect between design research and >its applicability to design practice, has been a recurring theme on this >list.