Design Research Through Practice: From the Lab, Field, and Showroom

Businesses and the HCI and Interaction Design communities have embraced design and design research. Design research as a field blends methodologies from several disciplines - sociology, engineering, software, philosophy, industrial design, HCI/interaction design -- so designers can learn from past successes and failure and don’t have to reinvent the wheel for each new design (whether it’s a digital product, a building, an airplane or furniture). They take into account form, function, and, ultimately, users. Many books exist in the research and academic realm for this field, but none create a usable bridge to design practice. Although business people are embracing design, they are not going to become designers. Design researchers need tools to apply their research in the real world. Design Research through Practice takes advanced design practice as its starting point, but enriches it to build a design process than can respond to both academic and practical problems. The aims of the book are to study three design research traditions that cover methodological directions in current leading research community. Taking you from the Lab, Field and to the Showroom, Ilpo Koskinen and his group of researchers show you successful traditions in design research that have been integrated into processes and products. Bridging the gap from design research to design practice, this is a must have for any designer.• Gathers design research experts from traditional lab science, social science, art, industrial design, UX and HCI to lend tested practices and how they can be used in a variety of design projects • Provides a multidisciplinary story of the whole design process, with proven and teachable techniques that can solve both academic and practical problems • Presents key examples illustrating how research is applied and vignettes summarizing the key how-to details of specific projects
Design Research Through Practice: From the Lab, Field, and Showroom focuses on one type of contemporary design research known as constructive design research. It looks at three approaches to constructive design research: Lab, Field, and Showroom. The book shows how theory, research practice, and the social environment create commonalities between these approaches. It illustrates how one can successfully integrate design and research based on work carried out in industrial design and interaction design.The book begins with an overview of the rise of constructive design research, as well as constructive research programs and methodologies. It then describes the logic of studying design in the laboratory, design ethnography and field work, and the origins of the Showroom and its foundation on art and design rather than on science or the social sciences. It also discusses the theoretical background of constructive design research, along with modeling and prototyping of design items. Finally, it considers recent work in Lab that focuses on action and the body instead of thinking and knowing.Many kinds of designers and people interested in design will find this book extremely helpful.• Gathers design research experts from traditional lab science, social science, art, industrial design, UX and HCI to lend tested practices and how they can be used in a variety of design projects• Provides a multidisciplinary story of the whole design process, with proven and teachable techniques that can solve both academic and practical problems• Presents key examples illustrating how research is applied and vignettes summarizing the key how-to details of specific projects