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School for Cross-faculty Studies Design Studies

Design Research

DI301-15 Term 1

Module Leader
Dr Jane Webb
Third year only
Term 1
15 CATS
18.5 practical class hours and 26.5 private study hours

All lectures and seminars will be face to face unless otherwise stated in Moodle
Please note this webpage refers to the module as planned for 2024-2025. For other versions, please refer to the module catalogue: Module information 

The Design Research module provides students with the opportunity to explore processes of practice-based and academic research of, for, and through design.

Students will inhabit a range of methodological approaches throughout this module, and will be encouraged to experiment with traditional and novel methods of design research to understand the importance of serious play.

This will allow them to more fully understand and hone their own research methods, relevant to their own interests and project aspirations. Ethical issues will be embedded throughout the module, encouraging students to consider, address and critique their own standpoints and perspectives. The module will also work with students to explore and understand structures for research funding.

Principal Aims

  • The module aims to equip students with a knowledge of the potential breadth of research methods, methodologies and positionality in design research by allowing them to experience diverse approaches to research.
  • Key to this introduction is the development of openness to methods that might be unexpected and perceived as radical, experimental or playful.
  • The module also aims to encourage students to think about and develop their own innovation in practice-based research methods.
  • By the end of the module, students will be able to place ethics at the heart of their research. Students will also be familiar with research funding structures and application processes.

Outline Syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Design Research covers a diverse range of design practice research methods that will be explored throughout the module. These include (but are not limited to):

  • Technical research (explores physical material qualities/digital qualities/systems and transformations of those)
  • Information visualisation research (working with data capturing and sources)
  • Process-based research (working through a process to find its boundaries and limits)
  • Material research (explores the histories and culture of materials)
  • Diaristic research (uses the self to document patterns or change)
  • Ethnographic research (what people, animals and things do)
  • Object-based research (using objects directly, even out of context)
  • Place-based research (about a place or in a place)
  • Experimental research (setting up a scenario and working within it, e.g. imagining a different, time or place)
  • Participatory or co-design research (related to ethnographic but others are part of the process of conception, ideation and recording)
  • A diverse range of academic research including methods of secondary and primary research (qualitative and quantitive).

All research methods will be infused with ethical considerations and address methodology and research positionality.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

  • Understand and identify the diversity and potentiality of design research methods.
  • Participate in and adopt experimentation across diverse research methods and methodologies.
  • Develop and deploy appropriate design research methods for particular tasks and contexts.
  • Demonstrate understanding and use of appropriate ethical approaches, complementary to personally chosen methods and methodologies.
  • Develop record-keeping and critical analysis (visual and textual) of methods and methodologies.

Research element

This module is all about research methods and the consideration of positionality and methodology. Research methods will range from archival research to fieldwork and material exploration and involve students trialling approaches that they might initially be unfamiliar with.

Interdisciplinary

This module is focussed on practice-based research for design but this is a broad, interdisciplinary field drawing on (but not reduced to) approaches from anthropology, sociology, medicine, archaeology, politics, philosophy, performance, and fine art.

International

Material and examples of research practice will be drawn from design practice research activity across the world.

Subject specific skills

  • Practice-based design methodologies and methods.
  • An understanding of ethics within a design-practice framework.
Transferable skills
  • Research skills (detailed below).
  • Documentation skills including digital recording (audio/visual), photography, textual documentation and repository construction.
  • Critical analysis.
  • Essay writing.
  • Referencing.
  • Analysis of ethical considerations.
  • Project design.
Indicative reading list

Crabtree, Andy, et al. Doing Design Ethnography. Springer, 2012.
Grierson, Elizabeth, et al. De-Signing Design: Cartographies of Theory and Practice. Lexington Books, 2015.
Jonas, Wolfgang. “The Strengths / Limits of Systems Thinking Denote the Strengths / Limits of Practice-Based Design Research.” Formakademisk, vol. 7, no. 4, 2014.
Kirk, Andy. Data Visualisation: A Handbook for Data Driven Design. SAGE Publications, 2019.
Kriz, Karel, et al. Mapping Different Geographies. Springer, 2010.
Leavy, Patricia. Method Meets Art: Arts-Based Research Practice. The Guilford Press, 2015.
Müller, Francis, and Anna Brailovsky. Design Ethnography: Epistemology and Methodology. Springer, 2021.
Robertson, Toni, and Jesper Simonsen. Routledge International Handbook of Participatory Design. Routledge, 2013.
Uğur, Seçil. Wearing Embodied Emotions: a Practice Based Design Research on Wearable Technology. Springer, 2013.
Vear, Craig. The Routledge International Handbook of Practice-Based Research. Routledge, 2022.

 Please note: Module availability and staffing may change year on year depending on availability and other operational factors. The School for Cross-faculty Studies makes no guarantee that any modules will be offered in a particular year, or that they will necessarily be taught by the staff listed on this page.