Theme 5: Reflection

The theme this week was design research which I think is an interesting research method. It’s more in line with the kind of research I’m interested in, where you actually create something or at least propose the creation of a product or system.

However, we did not have any seminars this week. Instead we had two lectures, one held by Ylva Ferneaus and one held by Haibo Li. Both of the lecturers were also part in the writing of the two texts we read for this week’s theme - Comics, Robots, Fashion and Programming: outlining the concept of actDresses and Turn Your Mobile Into the Ball: Rendering Live Football Game Using Vibration. Both of the texts were design oriented research, albeit not exactly the same type of design research. It was nevertheless interesting to see how design research can be approached in different ways and aimed at different outcomes.

I thought Haibo Li’s lecture brought up some interesting things that I believe that I, and perhaps many other students and researchers, often overlook. Especially the part about how we approach a problem caught my attention. Haibo Li mentioned that researchers can often be quite hasty when defining the problem, and then quickly move onto the solution. The difference between good and bad research can be the result of how you distribute the work over time and which parts that get the most focus. In general, Haibo Li thought that more time and effort should be put into the defining of the problem, which, after hearing it, sounds very logical to me. How can one solve a problem when every part of the problem isn’t yet revealed? And what if you start designing the solution, and notice that the problem is askew from the solution given by the design? I really think this is something I’ll think about when conducting research on my own, or just designing a product/system. Jumping into the designing right away could possibly make all the work ineffective or just downright not very good.