The Designer's Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design - Hardcover

Augustin, Sally; Coleman, Cindy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0470601736 ISBN 13: 9780470601730

Publisher: Wiley, 2012

Synopsis

An essential introduction to applying research for busy architects and designers

The competitive design market and the need to create enduring value place high demands on architects and designers to expand their knowledge base to be able to digest and utilize multiple sources of information. Expected by their clients to be well versed on all aspects of a project, time-constrained architects and designers need quick responses in the face of daily challenges. As a result, these professionals must―more than ever―rely on, and apply, readily accessible information culled from sound research to gain a competitive advantage.

The Designer's Guide to Doing Research serves as an introductory guide on the general concepts and processes that define "good" research. Organized logically with the practical tools necessary to obtain research for all facets of the designer's workflow, this book offers:

• Material written in an accessible format specifically for practitioners

• Reliable content by experienced authors―a noted environmental psychologist and an interior design educator who is also a practitioner and writer

• Tools for planning, executing, and utilizing research presented in an easy-to-follow format along with case studies, sources, and applications

Written for all practices and people concerned with the built environment, from architects and interior designers to facility managers, landscape architects, and urban planners, this book serves as an invaluable starting point for gathering and implementing research effectively.

About this title

Review

From the Author Sally Augustin: Why should you be doing research now?

1. Using research to streamline the design options you work with can save you time and that means more income for you.
   
2. If your design work can be linked to research, many of your clients will be more comfortable with the decisions that they make and that you’ve made.
   
3. It’s ethical to research. Design has a significant influence on how people heal, learn, work, shop, live, and love. You need to know how your design decisions influence those processes.
   
4. The world is changing. And becoming even more complicated. Designers are being asked to create spaces for people they’ve never met who are doing things they themselves have never done, within a culture they’ve never experienced – which leads a slew of questions to be answered.
   
5. After their professional training, designers begin to live in the physical world differently than people without that training. Research re-connects you to the world of the “un-trained.”
   
6. Researchers have probed topics related to your current project – if you research, you can speed up your own original research efforts – or maybe find the answers to all your questions without writing a single survey or interview question (or doing any other primary research) yourself.
   
7. Even if you think you know all about the circumstances under which people will use the place or object you’re designing, it’s important to verify that your info is really applicable and current.
   
8. The research process is getting more straightforward as additional information on techniques and analysis tools are available online.
   
9. Designing requires you to do the same sort of thinking that researching does – so you’re really researching anyway, whether you acknowledge that you’re doing so or not.
10. Researching builds a strong and useful knowledge base for future work, particularly if you’re organized about the process and your findings.

About the Author

Sally Augustin, PhD, is a practicing environmental psychologist, a principal at Design with Science, and the editor of Research Design Connections. She is regularly invited to speak at schools, research institutions, conferences, and on National Public Radio. Sally is the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley). Learn more about using environmental psychology at Sally's websites, www.placecoach.com (for residential applications), www.designwithscience.com (for commercial applications), and www.researchdesignconnections.com.

Cindy Coleman is a design strategist with Gensler and the editor of the Interior Design Handbook of Professional Practice (published by Interior Design magazine and McGraw-Hill). She is an assistant professor in the Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects Department at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a contributing editor to both Interior Design magazine and the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA Chicago) journal, Chicago Architect.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0470601736
• ISBN 13: 9780470601730
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 344