An attempt to characterize Research in Design
1. What is the role and purpose of research and/or research-oriented advanced education in design?
The short answer is that the purpose of research is to contribute to and expand the knowledge base that is the design field. This knowledge is generated by reflection as well as by research, and comes from both theory and practice, or analysis and synthesis. Our goal is to educate graduate students in the process of design research, to supplement their knowledge of design practice, in order to create contributors to the knowledge base. As several design leaders have pointed out, there is a need for both strong paractice and strong research:
"Designers need better research skills and increased capabilities to be able to work on more complex design problems." Deane Richardson, Co-founder - Fitch
"It is time to raise Design from a trade to a profession, and research is the key element in accomplishing that." Larry Keeley, President - Doblin Group
"Designers can offer little rebuttal to questions of data reliability and focus group response validity because they lack a credible research basis to justify the concerns." Meredith Davis - Chair-Graphic Design, NCSU.
"For years we have designed the showroom around the product. We have found through design research that we should be designing it around user experience and expectations." Jim Hackett - CEO, Steelcase
"We have consistently yielded responsibility for finding out about research issues to other disciplines like engineering and psychology, because they have a defined body of knowledge. We have stayed with the creative aspect. That's absurd. We have a very active body of knowledge within the design field, and through research we can add to and expand it." - Meredith Davis
"The designer as the singular creator of discrete objects has been supplanted by a new vision of the design professional as the orchestrator of complex systems in which information, materials, sensation, and technology are in a constant state of flux." Steven Skov Holt - VP, frogdesign
"Research is important as an intellectual validation for design, but the quality of creative work is still of the utmost importance." Peter Seidler - Chief Creative Officer, Razorfish
"We have to strike a balance between research and implementation." Clement Mok - Chief Creative Officer - Sapient
"Where academic research entails rigorous, detached, explicit, linear, sentential modes of rational argumentation, designers prefer practices that are intellectually mysterious" (Coyne & Snodgrass; 1994)
According to Ken Friedman, design research serves the design field through
All of these are part of the knowledge creation cycle. As Friedman says " the important moment has come in which research joins practice to build a community of design inquiry suited to the challenges and demands of a knowledge economy".
- generating direct, concrete applications
- solving problems that arise from the field itself
- considering basic questions and issues that will shape both disciplinary inquiry and the field of practice
- opening inquiry into basic questions that we haven't yet begun to ask
2. How do we define research within the design discipline?
• Federal guidelines: Research is a systematic investigation, including research development, testing and evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to generalizeable knowlege.
• OSU Dep't of Design definition:
Design research is
- the generation of new information or ways of using new information for designers and/or their clients;
- investigation aimed at the discovery and interpretation of facts, revision of accepted theories or newer revised theories or concepts of design.
It can include the creation of significant works of design or art and/or design related computer software [or multimedia content] development that benefits the discipline.
• Alternative academic definition (Penn State University):
Creative research accomplishment or scholarly research in Design, Arts and Architecture generally falls into three broad areas:
It is the development of critical and analytical thinking and the creative synthesis of independent work or experimentation in producing a contribution to knowledge that is well grounded in findings from a research activity.
- The design, creation, construction, exhibition, installation, production, or publication of original works of architecture, dance, design, electronic media, landscape architecture, music, theatre, and visual arts
- The performance of original dance, literary, musical, or theatrical works or works from the traditional and contemporary repertories of the performing arts
- The pursuit, presentation, and publication of scholarly research in all of the college's disciplines
• Richard Buchanan provides a distinction between research approaches
- Pure (basic) research
- a search for general principles
- theory resides on several levels
- macrolevel - covering wide areas or fields
- midlevel - specific ranges of issues
- microlevel - based on narrow questions
- Applied research
- adapts the findings of basic research to classes of problems
- may develop or generate questions that will become the subject of basic research
- Clinical research
- applies the findings of basic and applied research to specific cases
- may generate questions that will become the subject of basic or applied research
Design has traditionally lived in the third category and in fact has suffered from the worst danger to the advancement of knowledge in the field: studying issues under the severe constraints of practice. By moving the field from the art/guild model to the University, the general tendancy is to move to a more pure or applied level of research, thus providing the impetus to move from a practice to a profession, much like medicine and law have done.
• The Arts & Humanities Research Board provides an excellent definition of research. In this definition research is considered to be a process built around three key features:
- clearly-articulated research questions to be addressed through the research, and a related series of research objectives which will enable the questions to be explored and answered
- the specification of a research context for the questions, and a rationale for why it is important that these particular questions should be answered or explored; this description of context should make clear what other research is being or has been conducted in this area; and what particular contribution this particular project will make to the advancement of creativity, insights, knowledge and understanding in this area
- the specification of appropriate research methods for addressing and answering the research questions, and a rationale for the use of particular methods
Definitions from the AHRB
- Research question - the question or problem to be explored in the course of the research
- Research context - the reasons why the research question should be answered or the problem explored; where the research lies in relation to other research that is being or has been conducted in the relevant area; the contribution that the project will make to the advancement of knowledge, understanding and insights in the relevant area
- Research methods - the methods to be used in addressing and answering the research question
• From The Centre for Research in Art and Design at Robert Gordon University in Scotland
The widely accepted definition of [scientific] research as disciplined inquiry applies equally to research in art and design. The generic characteristics of this kind of inquiry - that research should be accessible, transparent and transferable - are useful criteria for shaping and evaluating our research:
- accessible - a public activity, open to scrutiny by peers
- transparent - clear in its structure, process and outcomes
- transferable - useful beyond the specific research project, applicable in principles (if not specifics) to other researchers and research contexts.
While practice (or aspects of it) can be part of the research methodology, practice alone is not research. AHRB make a clear distinction between research and practice per se: "Creative output can be produced, or practice undertaken, as an integral part of a research process as defined above; but equally, creativity or practice may involve no such process at all, in which case these are not considered to be research. The precise nature of the outcomes of the research may vary considerably, and may include, for example, monographs, editions or articles; electronic data, including sound or images; performances, films or broadcasts; or exhibitions. Teaching materials may also be an appropriate outcome from a research project as defined above."
Similarly, the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) provides further clarification about practice: "Professional practice qualifies as research when it can be shown to be firmly located within a research context, to be subject to interrogation and critical review and to impact on or influence the work of peers, policy and practice ..."
Charles Owen proposes the following mapping for looking at disciplines and their activities.
Design practice will naturally fall into the lower right quadrant, dealing with the synthetic/real activities. The extension of practice to research will move our discipline more to the left, thus contributing to and relying on knowledge that is created that can serve both realms.
What is the expectation of research in the OSU Design Department MA and MFA graduate program?
The answer is best characterized by the following quote from Prof. Richard Buchanon of Carnegie Mellon University (1998) ...
"... a master's student must go on to demonstrate mastery of the ability to make reasoned connections and to compare alternative ideas and methods within a chosen area of competence. In design, this means two things.
- First, the student should demonstrate mastery of the practice of design, as it is applied in an area of personal choice, leading to a completed design project. At its best, the project will be experimental and go beyond the bounds of mundane design practice, testing the limits of imagination. And it should stand up to the standards of professional critique.
- Second, I believe we should also expect a student to demonstrate a mastery of the intellectual skills and methods of reflection, evidenced in a written thesis that explores a thematic connection in a body of literature or applies an established research methodology in the exploration of a suitable question or problem. This thesis will not [necessarily] be an original inquiry, but it should be an original synthesis of existing ideas and methods or an original application of an established research methodology.
A graduate research endeavor in our Design Department requires a completed design project that extends the knowledge base of the design field, and can be successfully subjected to peer review. This project can take many forms: it can be a product; a web site; a CD or DVD; a computer animation; an experimental design or survey; software; a review or investigation of design theory; ...
The research endeavor must be documented in a written form that clearly identifies the salient issues that have been identified as the foundation of the project, the methodologies used to explore the project, and the results of the project that qualify as the extension of the boundaries of the field. This written document must be in Graduate School accepted thesis format if Plan A is specified, or in an advisor/committee approved format if Plan B is specified.
The project and written documentation must be presented in a "public forum", which is called the graduate defense, and must be successfully defended against all scrutiny of the graduate committee.
• From Mapping the Mapper, Wood and Taylor
It is important to highlight the salient differences between 'creative practices' of the studio, and those of other professionals. Schon points to the historical schism between scholastic research-based methods and those evolved by practice-oriented professionals such as doctors, architects and designers. These differences can be traced to their roots in the mediaeval monastic and craft-guild institutions respectively, resulting in separate epistemologies which do not correspond closely to each other.
The significant modes of knowledge used by artists and designers in their creative practice include 'tacit knowledge', received wisdom, and skills of judgement acquired by practical studio experiment and experience. By contrast, the conventional scholarly essay is linear and sequential, employing traditional devices such as syllogistic logic. Historically speaking, 'silent' reading is a comparatively recent skill and it is likely that the form of the scholarly essay has evolved from the rhetoric of public speaking. As such it is inclined to elevate the status of the author by permitting the creation of a fresh thesis from the bones of extant writings. For this reason, it is de rigueur for academic authors to cite precedent; traditionally in the form of gods, heroes, famous men, distinguished authors and, more recently, their bibliographic data, as a tacit claim to authority. This may explain the emphasis upon accurate sourcing and serial development strategies in academic writing. Likewise, 'scholastic rigour' is a key attribute of such writing, attained only through impeccable clarity and explicitness of argumentation.