RESEARCH METHOD • SYNTHESIS / ANALYSIS TECHNIQUE • RESEARCH DELIVERABLE
70 Research Through Design
Research through design recognizes the design process as a legitimate research activity, examining the tools and processes of design thinking and making within the design project, bridging theory and building knowledge to enhance design practices.1
Frayling identifies three types of design research: research into design, research through design, and research for design.2 Research into design is the most common form, encompassing research activity which studies design, or constitutes research about design, such as historical, aesthetic, perceptual, or theoretical research. Research for design is controversial, as it is really the reference material that informs and is embodied in the designed artifact, bringing into question whether this accurately constitutes “research.” Research through design is constituted by the design process itself, including materials research, development work, and the critical act of recording and communicating the steps, experiments, and iterations of design.
As an approach to interaction design, research through design integrates models and theories with technical knowledge in the design process.3 Designers first look at secondary design research, then combine it with their own up-front exploratory research, using methods such as design ethnography, contextual inquiry, observation, interviews, experience sampling methods, and diary and photo studies. Through a process of ideation, experimentation, and critique, designers then reframe the problem to arrive at the “right” solution. Of the artifacts that emerge from the design process, including sketches, drawings, models, and prototypes, the most critical is documentation, which contextualizes and communicates design action.
In a similar perspective, “design (as) research” is explicitly contrasted to human-centered design and usability testing, suggesting that the act and material of design and making, rather than observing or interviewing, constitutes the means of investigation and generation of new knowledge.4 Differences aside, the intent of design (as) research runs parallel to design through research, because designers who conduct their research through creative, critically reflective practice may at once be responding to a design brief and a set of larger questions, utilizing their body of work to experiment and interrogate their ideas, test hypotheses, and pose new questions, documenting and communicating their work to advance design scholarship and enhance the inventory of design resources.
1. This recognition of design as research is articulated by Anne Burdick in her introduction to a selection of seven essays on the topic:
“Design requires a space—the research lab—for design risk-taking, speculation, and discovery, not only for specific applications but also to expand our knowledge of design itself.” From:
Burdick, Anne. “Design (As) Research” in Design Research: Methods and Perspectives. Brenda Laurel, ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003: 82.
2. Frayling, Christopher. “Research in Art and Design.” Royal College of Art Research Papers 1, no. 1 (1993): 1–5.
3. Zimmerman, John, Jodi Forlizzi, and Shelley Evenson. “Research Through Design as a Method for Interaction Design Research in HCI.” Proceedings of CHI, ACM, 2007.
4. Burdick, Anne. “Design (As) Research” in Design Research: Methods and Perspectives. Brenda Laurel, ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003: 82.
5. Baskinger, Mark. “Playing in the Sandbox: The Role of Experimentation in Designing,” UX Magazine, 2010, http://www.uxmag.com/design/playing-in-the-sandbox.
Baskinger, Mark and Mark Gross. “Tangible Interaction = Form + Computation.” Interactions xvii, no. 1. ACM, January–February, 2010.
INVESTIGATING FORM THROUGH MAKING
These form studies were created by the designer-researcher from a variety of media ranging from rib bones to 3D plaster prints as a method of research through design. Using computer modeling and hand shaping, each piece embodies an inquiry into materials, surfaces, volumes, and edges, informing research and teaching in the generation of form and experimental form.5
Courtesy of Mark Baskinger © 2011