Research-based design
 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
It is proposed that this article be deleted because of the following concern:
If you can address this concern by improving, copyediting, sourcing, renaming, or merging the page, please edit this page and do so. You may remove this message if you improve the article or otherwise object to deletion for any reason. Although not required, you are encouraged to explain why you object to the deletion, either in your edit summary or on the talk page. If this template is removed, do not replace it. This message has remained in place for seven days, so the article may be deleted without further notice. Find sources: "Research-based design" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR Nominator: Please consider notifying the author/project: {{subst:proposed deletion notify|Research-based design|concern=Contextless and unsourced personal essay}} ~~~~Timestamp: 20141017120520 12:05, 17 October 2014 (UTC) Administrators: delete |
The research-based design process is a research praxis inspired by design theories (Ehn & Kyng, 1987; Schön, 1987; Nelson & Stolterman, 2003). It is strongly oriented towards the building of prototypes and it emphasizes creative solutions, exploration of various ideas and design concepts, continuous testing and redesign of the design solutions. This method is also influenced by the Scandinavian participatory design approach. Therefore, most of the activities take place in a close dialog with the community that is expected to use the tools designed.
The process can be divided into four major phases, although they all happen concurrently and side-by-side. At different times of the research, researchers are asked to put more effort into different phases. The continuous iteration, however, asks researchers to keep all the phases alive all the time:
- Contextual Inquiry
- Participatory Design
- Product Design
- Prototype as Hypothesis
In the first phase –the contextual inquiry– the focus is on the exploration of the socio-cultural context of the design. The aim is to understand the environment, situation, and culture where the design takes place. The results of the contextual inquiry are better understanding of the context by recognizing in it possible challenges and design opportunities. In this phase, design researchers use rapid ethnographic methods, such as participatory observation, note-taking, sketching, informal conversations, and interviews. At the same time as the field work, the design researchers are doing a focused review of the literature, benchmarking existing solutions, and analyzing trends in the area in order to develop insights into the design challenges.
In the second phase –participatory design– workshops with the stakeholders are conducted. The workshops are based on the results of the contextual inquiry. In small groups of 4-6, the results of the contextual inquiry are discussed and developed further. A common practice is to present the results as scenarios made by the design researchers containing challenges and design opportunities. In the workshop, the participants are invited to come up with design solutions to the challenges and to bring to the discussion new challenges and solutions. Later, the participatory design workshops are organized to discuss the early prototypes.
The results of the participatory design are analyzed in a design studio by the design researchers and used to create early prototypes that are then tested and validated again in participatory design sessions. By keeping a distance from the stakeholders, in the product design phase the design researchers will get a chance to analyze the results of the participatory design, categorize them, use specific design language related to implementation of the prototypes, and finally make design decisions.
Ultimately, the prototypes are developed to be functional on a level that they can be tested with real people in their everyday situations. The prototypes are still considered to be a hypothesis, prototypes as hypothesis, because they are expected to be part of the solutions for the challenges defined and redefined during the research. It remains to the stakeholders to decide whether they support the assertions made by the design researchers. Research-based design is not to be confused with design-based research (Barab & Squire, 2004; The Design-Based Research Collective, 2003; Fallman, 2007; Leinonen & al., 2008). In research-based design, which builds on art and design tradition, the focus is on the artifacts, the end-results of the design. The way the artifacts are, the affordances and features they have or do not have, form an important part of the research argumentation. As such, research-based design as a methodological approach includes research, design, and design interventions that are all intertwined.
 | This article has not been added to any content categories. Please help out by adding categories to it so that it can be listed with similar articles. (October 2014) |