Design Research; Methods and Perspectives

Laurel, Brenda

ISBN 10: 0262122634 / ISBN 13: 9780262122634

Published by The MIT Press, Cambridge, 2003

B&W Illustrations; 4to 11" - 13" tall; 336 pages; [SIGNED] 2003 MIT Press. Square format HC/DJ. 1st edition. Inscribed and signed by the author on the title page. Snug, bright and fresh. Just a hint of shelf evidence to jacket extremities. About as new. NF/NF; Signed by Author. Seller Inventory # 44884

Synopsis:

How the tools of design research can involve designers more directly with objects, products and services they design; from human-centered research methods to formal experimentation, process models, and application to real world design problems.

The tools of design research, writes Brenda Laurel, will allow designers "to claim and direct the power of their profession." Often neglected in the various curricula of design schools, the new models of design research described in this book help designers to investigate people, form, and process in ways that can make their work more potent and more delightful. "At the very least," Peter Lunenfeld writes in the preface, "design research saves us from reinventing the wheel. At its best, a lively research methodology can reinvigorate the passion that so often fades after designers join the profession."

The goal of the book is to introduce designers to the many research tools that can be used to inform design as well as to ideas about how and when to deploy them effectively. The chapter authors come from diverse institutions and enterprises, including Stanford University, MIT, Intel, Maxis, Studio Anybody, Sweden's HUMlab, and Big Blue Dot. Each has something to say about how designers make themselves better at what they do through research, and illustrates it with real world examples—case studies, anecdotes, and images. Topics of this multi-voice conversation include qualitative and quantitative methods, performance ethnography and design improvisation, trend research, cultural diversity, formal and structural research practice, tactical discussions of design research process, and case studies drawn from areas as unique as computer games, museum information systems, and movies. Interspersed throughout the book are one-page "demos," snapshots of the design research experience. Design Research charts the paths from research methods to research findings to design principles to design results and demonstrates the transformation of theory into a richly satisfying and more reliably successful practice.

About the Author: Brenda Laurel is Chair of the graduate Media Design Program at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California and was the co-founder of Purple Moon. She is the author of Utopian Entrepreneur (MIT Press, 2001).

Peter Lunenfeld is Professor of Design Media Arts at UCLA.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Design Research; Methods and Perspectives
Publisher: The MIT Press, Cambridge
Publication Date: 2003
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Near Fine
Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
Signed: Signed by Author(s)
Edition: First Edition; First Printing.