DESN389

The purpose of this course is for each student to develop an understanding of what design research is, why it is important, how it may be conducted, and what are the consequences of well-conducted design research. The ultimate purpose of design research is to generate a substantial knowledge base, general and specialised for the particular design disciplines, through which high quality designs may be produced.

This course is concerned with some crucial aspects of design as being a uniquely human ability. The acts of designing or creating are processes rich in complexity. If we accept the idea that design also emphasises evaluation and presentation of reality in a cultural and social context, then we are accepting the fact that design is a means for enquiring, or that design is enquiry in a broader sense.   

In that context designing as a process of enquiring logically relates to research as an activity through which one can acquire knowledge, specifically for design disciplines. ‘Research as systematic enquiry, the goal of which is knowledge’ (Design Research Society definition) brings into the process of designing tools from the sciences, arts, humanities and social sciences. Design as enquiry, through design action as a progressive and transformable activity, searches different possibilities for presentation of knowledge. That way one can differentiate knowledge about design from design knowledge, the latter through which a designer develops the intellectual skill of adaptability to a constantly changing environment. Supporting novelty, innovation and original thinking, design research culminates in the act of creativity, an individual effort built on a discourse between design and research. That discourse, as a complex system, provides opportunities for the creation of specific design knowledge, and the creative use of information. It conjoins speculative thought and creative force in an active and systematic way.  Knowledge can then be used in two main domains: creativity and project advancement and design critique. 

The first indicated domain of Design Research, creativity, is more complex which can be differentiated into three steps in design research. The first is research into factual data, using analytical approaches, theoretical positions and historical analyses. It is leading to an understanding of design issues from the outside, and is based on explicit knowledge reached through conceptual thinking. Regarding the mode of functionality as a tool for a possible development, it indicates design  aspects and modes of their transformation into design potentials. 

The second, applied research, leads to acting in a practical way, as a result of a sensorial and formal approach. Looking at design from the inside, in a structural way through perceptual thinking, this research mode is strongly connected with methods leading to explicit knowledge as the procedures of designing organised in a systematic way. Connecting both intuitive and non-intuitive design methods, it represents a system of logically connected explicit and tacit knowledge. It develops design potentials according to basic functional modes, and it investigates the possibility of their interaction. 

The third step in research, experimental, also leads to action but in a purely creative way. Systematically using both experiential and intuitive methods, this research mode synthesises the elements of tacit knowledge, creating a new kind of knowledge. It is the stage of design as enquiry of presentation of design knowledge. It emphasises a personal approach and value system, and the use of knowledge developed from individual experience. It transforms different design potentials into design concepts, researching into their contextual values, as bases for a preliminary project description and design thesis.

The domain of project advancement and critique is a mode of applied research into procedures possibly applicable within the conceptual development of design potentials, aspects, and their contextual values. It is based on a process of rethinking of an established research activity and its steps which leads toward a final project description and design thesis, applicable in the process of a project development.  Design research as a process relates no longer to the design product exclusively as a formal object, but to the design product as the material appearance of a complex system, made up of people, artefacts and ideas (individual and/or global).

The design profession is a contemporary field growing within the university. Having few historical roots in the philosophical tradition deeper than the last few decades, we have yet to shape a clear understanding of the nature of design. We do not agree, therefore, on whether design knowledge constitutes a discipline, a field, or a science, one of these, two or even all three. (Friedman, 2000) As Friedman so adequately noted, Design Research has its foundations within a variety of disciplines, such as Art, Philosophy and Humanities, Engineering and Information Technology. Much research has been spent on the taxonomy of design and its implications for design research. The value of Design Research is also present within the debates and argumentes set already in the research by Frayling (1993) in which he defines three keymodes of design research; 

1. research into design

2. research through design

3. research for design. 

Understanding of design has been researched thoroughly and, is still a continuing process as new fields emerge within this domain. Central to this thinking is that design is a process. The rooting of design is situated within both theoretical and practical domains. The challenge of this new emerging field is to articulate formal and informal knowledge retrieved through formal and informal practices. The role of knowledge is of particular interest and importance as the field is still to be articulated in its taxonomy and ontology (Friedman). Knowledge can help, support, provide exchange and as such increase knowledge of, knowledge for and knowledge through Design Research. Knowledge enhances inter-disciplinary dialogue, mutual learning, facilitates research education, and promotes innovations in different fields.

Role of the artefact

Central for design is the creation of the Artefact. Within the perspective of this research the role of the artefact should be unraveled to show it’s full dimensions and implications. To summarize: In this understanding the artefact both represents the design and the research within the dimensions identified by Frayling. The artefact therefore embodies explicit and implicit knowledge. In other words to go beyond the product. (Jay Doblin, 1973)