Research Methods for Interior Design

Interior design has shifted significantly in the past fifty years from a focus on home decoration within family and consumer sciences to a focus on the impact of health and safety within the interior environment. This shift has called for a deeper focus in evidence-based research for interior design education and practice.

Research Methods for Interior Design provides a broad range of qualitative and quantitative examples, each highlighted as a case of interior design research. Each chapter is supplemented with an in-depth introduction, additional questions, suggested exercises, and additional research references. The book’s subtitle, Applying Interiority, identifies one reason why the field of interior design is expanding, namely, all people wish to achieve a subjective sense of well-being within built environments, even when those environments are not defined by walls. The chapters of this book exemplify different ways to comprehend interiority through clearly defined research methodologies.

This book is a significant resource for interior design students, educators, and researchers in providing them with an expanded vision of what interior design research can encompass.

Dana E. Vaux, PhD, is Associate Professor of Interior and Product Design at University of Nebraska Kearney. Her interdisciplinary scholarship investigates the connections between cultural-historical meanings and place.

David Wang, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of Architecture at Washington State University. He has published extensively on design research, most notably, with Linda Groat, Architectural Research Methods, 2nd edition, 2013.