89106 Design Research Methods

Description

Designers ordinarily generate new social worlds through the devices, methods, objects and environments they create. This subject provides an understanding of a range of socially-oriented research methods appropriate to design practice and its representations of and interventions into social life. Students learn about the history and practice of quasi-ethnographic research, and how to design and conduct simple field research exercises that will assist them in developing creative and intelligent design responses to complex social scenarios. The subject introduces qualitative techniques of observation, interview and participatory research that are further advanced in other areas of the Master of Design degree. The techniques and strategies students learn in this subject reflect the changing context of professional design where socially-oriented research skills are becoming more important. Students are encouraged to become problem seekers, who can use design research methods and tools to respond proactively to society rather than reacting to a client's set brief. In learning these techniques, students adopt the inventive, reflexive disposition of a design researcher.