Design Research Through Practice

Design Research Through Practice

by Ilpo Koskinen, John Zimmerman, Thomas Binder, Johan Redstrom, Stephan Wensveen
Released September 2011
Publisher(s): Morgan Kaufmann
ISBN: 9780123855039

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Book description

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

Table of contents

  1. Cover image
  2. Table of Contents
  3. Front-matter
  4. Copyright
  5. Foreword
  6. Preface
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. 1. Constructive Design Research
  9. 1.1. Beyond Research Through Design
  10. 1.2. Constructive Research in Design Research
  11. 1.3. What Is “Design”?
  12. 1.4. Industrial Design and Interaction Design
  13. 1.5. Design Research in Second Modernity
  14. 2. The Coming of Age of Constructive Design Research
  15. 2.1. The User-Centered Turn: Searching the Middle Way
  16. 2.2. Beyond the User
  17. 2.3. Between Engineering, Science, Design, and Art
  18. 3. Research Programs
  19. 3.1. Some Features of Constructive Research Programs
  20. 3.2. Imagination as a Step to Preferred Situations
  21. 3.3. Making Imagination Tangible: Workshops and Studios in Research
  22. 3.4. How Constructive Design Research Produces Meaning
  23. 3.5. Toward Socially Robust Knowledge
  24. 4. Lab
  25. 4.1. Rich Interaction: Building a Tangible Camera
  26. 4.2. Laboratory as a Site of Knowledge
  27. 4.3. Experimental Control
  28. 4.4. Physical Hypotheses and Design
  29. 4.5. Design, Theory, and Real-World Relevance
  30. 4.6. From Lab to Society: The Price of Decontextualization
  31. 4.7. Program at the Junction
  32. 5. Field
  33. 5.1. Vila Rosário: Reframing Public Health in a Favela
  34. 5.2. Understanding as the Basis of Design
  35. 5.3. Exploring Context with Props
  36. 5.4. Generating Concepts as Analysis
  37. 5.5. Evaluation Turns into Research: Following Imaginations in the Field
  38. 5.6. Interpretations as Precedents
  39. 5.7. Co-Design and New Objects
  40. 6. Showroom
  41. 6.1. The Origins of Showroom
  42. 6.2. Agnostic Science
  43. 6.3. Reworking Research
  44. 6.4. Beyond Knowledge: Design for Debate
  45. 6.5. Enriching Communication: Exhibitions
  46. 6.6. Curators and Researchers
  47. 6.7. How Not to Be an Artist
  48. 6.8. Toward Post-Critical Design
  49. 7. How to Work with Theory
  50. 7.1. Acting in the World
  51. 7.2. Lab: From Semantic Perception to Direct Action
  52. 7.3. Field: You Cannot Live Alone
  53. 7.4. Showroom: Design and Culture Under Attack
  54. 7.5. Frameworks and Theories
  55. 8. Design Things
  56. 8.1. User Research with Imagination
  57. 8.2. Gaining Firsthand Insights in the Studio
  58. 8.3. Concept Design with Moodboards, Mock-ups, and Sketches
  59. 8.4. Prototyping
  60. 8.5. Platforms: Taking Design into the Field
  61. 8.6. Design Things in Research
  62. 9. Constructive Design Research in Society
  63. 9.1. Luotain
  64. 9.2. Researchers as Peers
  65. 9.3. Research Faces Design Traditions
  66. 9.4. New Bauhauses: Digital and Electronic
  67. 9.5. Meet the Business
  68. 9.6. Embracing the Public Good
  69. 9.7. Constructive Design Research in Society
  70. 10. Building Research Programs
  71. 10.1. Beyond Rationalism
  72. 10.2. Contribution and Knowledge
  73. 10.3. How to Build Research Programs
  74. 10.4. Inspirations and Programs
  75. 10.5. Research Programs and Methodologies
  76. 10.6. The Quest for a Big Context
  77. References
  78. Index

Product information

  • Title: Design Research Through Practice
  • Author(s): Ilpo Koskinen, John Zimmerman, Thomas Binder, Johan Redstrom, Stephan Wensveen
  • Release date: September 2011
  • Publisher(s): Morgan Kaufmann
  • ISBN: 9780123855039