Get real: The need for effective design research

Visible Language, 2003 by Nemeth, Christopher

Designers use intuition in order to envision possibilities. In that strength also lies a weakness: a disinclination to account for what exists in reality. That prevents design from evolving into the powerful role that it could otherwise be. Learning about reality requires the tools that are necessary to perform research such as theory and methods. Research tools are essential in order to support an opinion or position, to build design solutions in technically challenging application areas, or to advance design as a leadership role instead of a support role. Better understanding and use of research would enable the designer to evolve from craft-bound artisan toward professional. This essay addresses recent influences on design practice, the opportunity for design to evolve in a professional direction and the methods that will support that evolution.

DESIGN PRACTICE

Herbert Simon (1998:4, 111-4) contends that "the engineer, and more generally the designer, is concerned with the way things ought to be-how they ought to be in order to attain goals and to function." For Simon, the designer takes action to "change existing situations into preferred ones" by "devising artifacts to attain those goals." The term "designer" represents the disciplines that work to create and develop new systems and products for human use. Traditionally, that includes architects and space planners, urban planners, product (industrial) designers, communication (graphic, information) designers and environmental designers. In recent decades, software interface designers and software architects and fashion and interior designers who deal with functional issues have assumed a design role.

Addressing each one of these design disciplines would result in a book, not an essay. Instead, this essay will use one discipline as an example: communication design. The role of communication design stems from the human need to negotiate between our inner self and the outer (natural) environment. (Simon, 1996:5-6) It is a natural extension of the human need to make sense of the world. In this context, communication design is the practice of visualization in order to inform and/or persuade. The communications designer detects and demonstrates patterns, making the implicit or abstract evident. Table 1 summarizes the kinds of knowledge that comprise communication design. The examples that it contains are not intended to be exhaustive. Rather, they demonstrate the relationships among theory, knowledge and skill.

Philosophy

Philosophy informs design practice by framing views of reality and the human role in it. Semiotics, the understanding of reality through perceptions, is one of many philosophical approaches. Designers structure properties in order to send messages, using hierarchies (taxonomies) in order to organize them into purposeful wholes.

Social Sciences

Anthropology and sociology provide theories of culture and society. Methods such as fieldwork make it possible for the designer to learn about both through observation.

Human Factors

Designers rely on human factors knowledge about human limits and abilities, primarily in visual sensation and perception and in cognition (e.g., learning, decision-making and memory). Designers can employ methods such as flow analysis to decompose, analyze and experiment with new models of complex environments.

Design

As there is no current body of knowledge that represents design theory, the theory section in the design column contains no examples. Designers use visualization as a means to embody possibilities by creating physical models.

Management

Through management, the designer leads project teams that include vendors who can be monitored through quality assurance and control methods in order to achieve optimal results. The designer also relies on management skills to develop business relationships and to compete.

As an applied artist, the designer accepts the responsibility for solutions to work, but on what basis? The norms of a discipline are developed and taught through education. Design's apprenticeship tradition relies on formal or informal mentoring programs among groups in order to "become proficient in standard techniques that involve motor-physical coordination" (Byrne and Sands 2002: unpaged). As a result, design education does not provide students with theories, methods or the tools to collect, analyze, interpret or apply data. Donald Norman (2002:41) contends that many designers and design schools cannot distinguish prettiness from usefulness and as a result practice 'facade design' to 'make things pleasant.'

Design has been assimilated into university curricula comparatively recently through a variety of routes that include art programs, architecture schools and technical colleges. This has led to the 'strange ground' of design being "anchored in a range of trades or vocations or

Communication Design Knowledge

Communication design is comprised of four knowledge areas: philosophy, juman factors, design and management. The examples that are shown are not intended to be exhaustive. Rather, they demonstrate the relationships among theory, knowledge and skill. Of the four knowledge areas, only design lacks theories to drive its methods and skills. The practice of design research will be one of the factors that enables design theory to evolve by creating what (Byrne 2001: unpaged) calls "generalizable, publicly examinable forms of knowledge about design..."crafts" while simultaneously being a "contemporary field growing within the university" (Friedman, 2000:8). Because of this brief tenure in academia, disagreement reigns "on whether the practice of design constitutes a trade, a vocation, an art, or a discipline" (Friedman 2002a:unpaged). Evidence indicates that "scientists problem solve by analysis whereas designers problem solve by synthesis; scientists use 'problem-focused strategies' and designers use 'solution focused strategies'" (Cross 2000:24). Managers and technical practitioners such as engineers rely on data to make such decisions. Designers, on the other hand, tend to use subjective judgment in order to determine success. Professional design presentations tend to describe case studies instead of objective principles that can be used in order to improve design practice. These traits have led other technical disciplines to perceive designers as creative artisans, but hardly as professionals.