About the project

Matters to do with methods are often underplayed in design research – energy that goes into designing is not always turned onto experimentation in research methods. We see a need to more fully explore how richer relationships can be built between the techniques of designing and the methods of researching in a qualitative mode.

The project takes up number of interconnected questions:

– How might designers and social scientists draw on each other’s methods and practices?

– In what ways can specifically design based research benefit from qualitative methods in the social sciences?

– What techniques from design can we draw on in qualitative inquiry on design?

– How can a mix and distinction of methods enrich our understanding of design and related design research?

– What sort of connections can we make been activities of researching and designing both based in world of work and leisure?

Analytical frames: these are diverse given the nature of the project and its process-oriented role in the centre, and include ethnography, qualitative inquiry, experimental rhetoric, digital design and mediation.

Deliverables: workshops, project inputs, research papers, teaching on PhD school.

Funding: Centre for Design Research.