Showing Your Stuff

The importance of revealing your practices in “practice-led” research

Originally posted to the PhD-Design email discussion list on 20 November 2008

image from Graham Whiteley’s PhD thesis

David Balkwill’s comments (in a previous message to PhD-Design) about students missing the point of their task, which is designing not drawing, is very relevant to research and doctoral studies. One of the key issues to be resolved in any “practice-led” project is how the quality and validity of the methods are to be made clear

In the Eating

Grounding the validation of investigative designing in the experience of stakeholders

RUST. C, (2009) In the Eating: Grounding the validation of investigative designing in the experience of stakeholders, International Association of Societies of Design Research Conference, Seoul, Korea, October 2009

I wrote and presented this paper as part of a special session at the IASDR conference, organised by Stella Boess of TU Delft. Stella wished to explore the question of how knowledge arising from the use of designed artefacts in research might be validated.

Designing with Values

A designer’s framework for delivering personalised media

RUST, C.  BLYTHE, M. MCKAY, A. BAGGOTT, J. WRIGHT, P.  (2009) Designing with Values: A designer’s framework for delivering personalised media in an unencumbered interactive environment. International Association of Societies of Design Research Conference, Seoul, Korea, October 2009

Abstract

This paper describes the evolution of a design and development process for a museum exhibit that delivered unencumbered or ambient interactive media using personal values as the main framework for customising interaction and thus for selecting and developing content. The context of the work is the developing field of products and systems that incorporate rich digital content.

Personalising Unencumbered Multimedia Content in a Museum Environment

RUST, C.  BLYTHE, M. MCKAY, A. BAGGOTT, J. WRIGHT, P.  (2009) My Exhibition: Personalising Unencumbered Multimedia Content in a Museum Environment in Inns, T. (2009) Designing for the 21st Century Vol 2, London, Gower

This book chapter described the interdisciplinary collaboration that developed in this project, the complexity of the work might be seen in this diagram

Download pre-print from archive.org

NB the preprint copy incorrectly shows Chris Rust as sole author, the correct authors are given in the citation above

A Tacit Understanding

A Tacit Understanding: The designer’s role in capturing and passing on the skilled knowledge of master craftsmen

Nicola Wood, Chris Rust & Grace Horne, February 2009
Sheffield Hallam University Art and Design Research Centre Working Paper

Download full paper from archive.org

For the past two years Nicola and Grace have been exploring the practical application of methods and theories developed in Nicola’s doctoral research into transmitting craft knowledge

Dr Simon Bowen

I’m exceptionally pleased to announce that Simon Bowen has successfully defended his PhD thesis titled

A Critical Artefact Methodology: Using Provocative Conceptual Designs to Foster Human-centred Innovation

available online at http://www.simon-bowen.com/?page_id=40

Simon’s work explores some practical implications of the critical design methods developed by Dunn and Raby, Bill Gaver and others. He has synthesised and evaluated ways for designers to use provocative concepts, “Crazy Ideas” as he describes them, to stimulate stakeholders to engage in productive speculation about aspirations and needs that might not be revealed by more conventional user research techniques.

ACQUINE – Is this how to engineer affect?

Aesthetic Quality Inference Engine – “Intelligent, Unbiased and Instant Assessment of Photos“
Science, snake oil or just a bit of fun?

Last week Terry Love alerted the PhD-Design community to the ACQUINE web tool for rating the “aesthetic” quality of images. Obviously this kind of thing is a red rag to most of us in the art school tradition but it does point to some serious questions. My reactions went from having a bit of fun with the tool, to questioning its credentials and finally to a feeling that it pointed to a valid direction for science to explore as a long term inquiry but also a rich well of snake oil right now for those out to make money from gullible businesses. Most of what I’ve said below was originally posted in four recent messages to the PhD-Design discussion list at JISCmail.ac.uk

Round 1 – Having fun with Acquine

I started out by trying the online tool to assess my personal beauty.

NSF Design Education Workshop, April 2009

Planning an interdisciplinary postgraduate design curriculum

Last week I spent two days at Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois) taking part in a workshop on postgraduate design education, the second in a series funded by the US National Science Foundation.

Although there was a broad mix of participants from across the range of design disciplines, the main focus was on engineering design with a sub-text of how design might sit with a science-led agenda. Northwestern have a very interesting set of design programs, including interdisciplinary degrees, with a strong practical component and an emphasis on human-centred design led by Don Norman. While this seemed to demonstrate a balanced view of the opportunities in design education there was also a strong voice, represented by Panos Papalambros of University of Michigan, in favour of a highly quantitative view of design as optimisation.

Brompton folding bike – Seven League Boots

The Brompton folding bike, I believe, is one of the most exceptional and life-enhancing products made in Britain. It is also a complete denial of all the basic assumptions we make about industry today as it is hand-made, expensive, timeless but completely modern and selling like hot cakes even during the recession. Hardly any other bikes are made in the UK, Asian manufacturers seem to have dominated the market because they offer good products for an unbeatable price, but Brompton is a great international success.

Braun SK55, Snow White’s Coffin

Braun SK55, the arrival of mainstream modernism in consumer product design.

Recently, thanks to the kindness of Michael Hohl,  I acquired a wonderful Braun SK55 radiogram from the early 1960s. This is the direct descendent of the Braun SK4, Snow White’s Coffin, one of the completely original products designed by Dieter Rams that transformed Braun’s brand in the late 1950s. It’s remarkable that things like this were being made even before transistors  took over the market to allow the design freedom behind today’s compact robust electronic products.

Here it is (or one just like it)