The tools of design research, writes Brenda Laurel, will allow designers "to claim and direct the power of their profession." Often neglected in the various curricula of design schools, the new models of design research described in this book help designers to investigate people, form, and process in ways that can make their work more potent and more delightful. "At the very least," Peter Lunenfeld writes in the preface, "design research saves us from reinventing the wheel. At its best, a lively research methodology can reinvigorate the passion that so often fades after designers join the profession."The goal of the book is to introduce designers to the many research tools that can be used to inform design as well as to ideas about how and when to deploy them effectively. The chapter authors come from diverse institutions and enterprises, including Stanford University, MIT, Intel, Maxis, Studio Anybody, Sweden?s HUMlab, and Big Blue Dot. Each has something to say about how designers make themselves better at what they do through research, and illustrates it with real world examples--case studies, anecdotes, and images. Topics of this multi-voice conversation include qualitative and quantitative methods, performance ethnography and design improvisation, trend research, cultural diversity, formal and structural research practice, tactical discussions of design research process, and case studies drawn from areas as unique as computer games, museum information systems, and movies. Interspersed throughout the book are one-page "demos," snapshots of the design research experience. Design Research charts the paths from research methods to research findings to design principles to design results and demonstrates the transformation of theory into a richly satisfying and more reliably successful practice.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"... an indispensable resource for everyone in the field." I.D.
"Bravo! This truly is a remarkable book about one of the most significant design practices of the 21st century. It will push and test your knowledge about the role and the value of design. A must-readif you are serious about redesigning the future." Clement Mok, Founder, Studio Archetype, and President, AmericanInstitute of Graphic Arts
"...this is a book to turn your career inside out with serious examination and reflection." Book Bytes
"We live in perhaps the most overtly (and, possibly, overly) designed time in human history. Design touches us all, regardless of career,country, or social status. If you want to understand the impace of design on your everyday life, the ways in which design research can make you a more effective creator of designedartifacts, or the ways in which those artifacts can best be brought to consumers, the essays collected in Brenda Laurel's Design Research are a great place to start. Whether you make things,sell things, study things, or use things, Laurel'slatest offers a unique and powerful historical,analytical, personal, and practical overview of thisvital field." Warren Spector, Studio Director, Ion Storm
About the Author
Brenda Laurel is Chair of the graduate Media Design Program at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California and was the co-founder of Purple Moon. She is the author of Utopian Entrepreneur (MIT Press, 2001).
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
54 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Beware,
This review is from: Design Research: Methods and Perspectives (Hardcover)
Beware! This book has an attractive title for design researchers. I expected it to be a manual that might be useful, for example, to PhD students in design. But it is not. It is hugely disappointing. It has usurped the title `design research' for what is largely innovation management prattle.
It's a book for designers, not students. But I'm not sure what designers would get from it. Inspiration to engage more in user research? Perhaps. Encouragement to delve deeper into research methods, and to learn more? No; because the references and further reading are extremely limited. For instance, two potentially useful chapters, overviews of quantitative and qualitative methods respectively, have just one reference between them, and that's to Cooper's The Inmates are Running the Asylum, in the qualitative methods chapter.
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A great browse,
This review is from: Design Research: Methods and Perspectives (Hardcover)
The varied opinions among the existing reviews suggests this is somehow a strange subject area. I can only report on my own response, and I think this is a cool book. Before thumbing through to the preface you'll encounter a neat symbol of good design - a two page spread of the what's in the book. A true "table of contents," whose rows represent various aspect of design research, and whose columns are the book chapters. Each table cell is marked if that chapter pertains to that aspect. Pleasing to the eye and enormously useful, especially if you wish to use this as a text or part of some focused study.
Many chapters are authored by one or more designers who reflect on their own approach and experience in design. I found this to be a rich source of material for thinking about ways to create new things. I would think that nearly anyone whose job requires creative output will find here some interesting and useful tools to add to their collection.
22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Think differently,
By A Customer
This review is from: Design Research: Methods and Perspectives (Hardcover)
If you want a linear, predictable textbook explanation of how to do design research, this book isn't for you. If, however, you want to be grounded in an appreciation of the craft by people who live it everyday, and inspired to think differently about its many facets and future, I highly recommend it. This book seems intended for the serious practioner who wants to elevate his or her game.
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- Design Studies: Theory and Research in Graphic Design by Audrey Bennett in Front Matter, page 197, and page 240
- What is Graphic Design For? (Essential Design Handbook) by Alice Twemlow in Back Matter
- Designing Interactions by Bill Moggridge in Back Matter
- Thoughtful Interaction Design: A Design Perspective on Information Technology by Jonas Löwgren in Back Matter
- In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World by John Thackara in Back Matter
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