Overview

Description

COURSE DETAILS:

Overview & Aims
Research through Design (RtD) is an approach to conducting research that uses design—and its methods, processes, and practices—as a form of inquiry to generate new knowledge. Design has been widely characterized as a reflective practice where designers iteratively develop new framings and interpretations of complex, often problematic situations in the world through a process of making and critiquing artifacts or systems that operate as potential solutions (Rittel & Weber 1973; Schön 1983; Simon 1996). RtD leverages the practice of design to generatively investigate and reflect on what the world could, should, or ought to be. Over the course of the past two decades, RtD has steadily gained purchase in the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) community as a method for conducting research.

This course is intended for students interested in gaining a background in and understanding how to practice Research through Design, and in the range of design methods it encompasses. The course has two main aims:
 1. To familiarize students with and help in navigating the history, theories, agendas, issues, and methods encompassed in Research through Design, with a focus on the Human-Computer Interaction community.
 2. To provide the opportunity to engage in hands-on experience in putting RtD into practice as form of research inquiry.


Who should take this course

Graduate students with experience in making, designing, prototyping, building, and/or programming will benefit from this course and be able to take the most advantage of it. Importantly, this course assumes that all students already possess some degree of design, artistic, making and/or technical skills; and that students will make use of such skills in the course through their individual RtD project. This course will not teach specific skills (e.g., 3D modeling, digital fabrication, physical computing, etc.). Thus, this course may not be well suited for students that do not have a developed idea of their research area and/or do not have experience or interest in making things (digital or physical) as a part of their research. Students are encouraged to email the instructor in advance if they have any questions about this.

Mode of Delivery:
This course will emphasize a studio-based approach and, to a smaller degree, a seminar format (particularly in the first part of the course in which we review numerous prior works). We will aim to develop a creative and collaborative design culture in which we will engage in cycles of discussion and critique of each student’s emerging project work often.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

OutcomesThe overall learning goals for the course are for students to:

• Develop an understanding of the main movements in Research through Design in the Human-Computer Interaction Community: Where did it emerge from? Why? What kinds of research questions is it well equipped for exploring?
• Develop an understanding of breadth and depth of methods encompassed within Research through Design and how they can be appropriately applied to research problems and practices.
• Actively apply and relate a carefully selected RtD method (or combined set of methods) to address research question(s).

Topics
This course will cover historical and current theoretical perspectives on how RtD produces knowledge and the implications these differing viewpoints have for how RtD is translated into particular methods for practice. It will also review a range of design-oriented methods that can be applied at different stages of the research process. In this, we will attend to different types of research questions that RtD is well suited to investigate. These methods will include: experience prototyping, user enactments, cultural probes, constructive design research, material speculation, research products, the designer-researcher stance, and others.  We will also cover case examples of RtD from the Human-Computer Interaction community that highlight a diversity of ways in which RtD can be applied in practice. These case examples will explore topical themes that include: ludic design, design for the self, slow technology, critical design, civic engagement, and others. This review of prior work is intended to set the stage for the main part of the course: a hands-on application of an RtD as a form of research inquiry.

Grading

Materials

MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:

Some materials (e.g., micro-controller, form prototyping, physical materials, etc.) may be required for the specific final research through design project that each student pursues as the main outcome of the course. This will be dependant on the quality and nature of the student's proposed final design project. 

REQUIRED READING: