The DOI matches its Crossref record; 32 of the 32 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
What should we expect from research through design?
Abstract
In this essay, I explore several facets of research through design in order to contribute to discussions about how the approach should develop. The essay has three parts. In the first, I review two influential theories from the Philosophy of Science to help reflect on the nature of design theory, concluding that research through design is likely to produce theories that are provisional, contingent, and aspirational. In the second part, I discuss three possible interpretations for the diversity of approaches to research through design, and suggest that this variation need not be seen as a sign of inadequate standards or a lack of cumulative progress in the field, but may be natural for a generative endeavour. In the final section, I suggest that, rather than aiming to develop increasingly comprehensive theories of design, practice based research might better view theory as annotation of realised design examples, and particularly portfolios of related pieces. Overall, I suggest that the design research community should be wary of impulses towards convergence and standardisation, and instead take pride in its aptitude for exploring and speculating, particularising and diversifying, and - especially - its ability to manifest the results in the form of new, conceptually rich artefacts.
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Cites
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Research through design as a method for interaction design research in HCI
Zimmerman, J., Forlizzi, J., & Evenson, S. (2007) · Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/1240624.1240704 · Cited by 2,304
Cited by
Strong concepts: Intermediate-level knowledge in interaction design research
Höök, K., & Löwgren, J. (2012) · ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction · doi:10.1145/2362364.2362371 · Cited by 540
Embracing First-Person Perspectives in Soma-Based Design
Höök, K., Caramiaux, B., Erkut, C., Forlizzi, J., Hajinejad, N., Haller, M., Hummels, C., Isbister, K., Jonsson, M., Khut, G., et al. (2018) · Informatics · doi:10.3390/informatics5010008 · Cited by 207
Expanding and Refining Design and Criticality in HCI
Pierce, J., Sengers, P., Hirsch, T., Jenkins, T., Gaver, W., & DiSalvo, C. (2015) · Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/2702123.2702438 · Cited by 133
Self-citationCo-designing AI literacy exhibits for informal learning spaces
Long, D., Blunt, T., & Magerko, B. (2021) · Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1145/3476034 · Cited by 128
Sketching NLP: A Case Study of Exploring the Right Things To Design with Language Intelligence
Yang, Q., Cranshaw, J., Amershi, S., Iqbal, S. T., & Teevan, J. (2019) · Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3290605.3300415 · Cited by 90
Metadata
- Authors
- Gaver, W.
- Venue
- Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
- Publisher
- ACM
- Published
- 2012-05-05
- Pages
- 937-946
- OpenAlex
- W2139470221
- Cited by
- 1,123
- References
- 32
- FWCI
- 90.60
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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