module specification

This module develops your abilities to identify, evaluate for suitability, synthesise and apply design research methods in support of your practice. It supports the acquisition of a body of research methods and a range of methodological approaches that can be adapted and applied to a wide variety of design challenges, providing the intellectual and technical skills necessary to test and validate design proposition, development and realisation through the collection, appraisal, interrogation and synthesis of bodies of evidence relevant to the design ‘problem’ and its context.

Research tools and methodologies must be carefully selected and applied, and their results appraised for validity in relation to the method and the subject of study, in order to avoid the risk of failure in design and the potentially serious or even dangerous consequences of such failure. You will therefore be introduced to a range of design research methods and asked to consider both their suitability and limitations, including ethical and environmental concerns, for application to research for practice in design.

The study of research methods themselves will be followed by study of exemplars that reveal success and perhaps more interestingly failure in design, seeking to understand the factors in terms of research and development (or their omission) that contributed to that success or failure. The study of these precedents will lead to a greater understanding of the potential but also the potential pitfalls of applied research methods for design, especially when they are applied without proper consideration or caveats as to the scope of their validity or applicability.

The aim is to produce design researchers who not only understand how to research for design, but whose first instinct is always to seek to find the tested and proven evidence base for designing, before embarking upon design development.

The module aims to:

• raise awareness of the beneficial impact of rigorous design research by demonstrating through examples how the quality of the design process and outcomes can be enhanced through the application of valid research methods;
• enable you to critically select and assemble appropriate research methods and methodological approaches into well-constructed design research programmes for application to practice;
• enable the achievement of original findings and proposals through the application of design research methods and methodological approaches to design development and practice;
• strengthen both your ability to work independently as a research active practitioner and your confidence to think and act critically, challenging received ideas and preconceptions.

Available for Study Abroad? NO

The syllabus will typically include lecture and seminar discussion of a range of methods and methodological approaches to research for design practice. These will include using both primary and secondary sources, including questionnaire design, interviewing and observational research as well as textual and visual analysis and consideration of ethical and environmental issues. (LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4)

Students will then build on the skills and knowledge acquired in the earlier part of the module in order to focus on a series of precedents or case studies exemplifying success and failure in design which will introduce a range of methodologies including ethnography, gender, material culture studies amongst others. (LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4)

Formal lectures and workshops are supported by individual tutorials and group seminars. Together they provide the support to ensure that the structured content and independent study conducted throughout this module are effective in addressing the module’s learning outcomes and assessment tasks. The module is core, operating within a framework of mutually supporting core modules and curricula, ensuring that course learning outcomes are addressed and met overall. As the module progresses, there is regular interim formative feedback on work in progress that asks you to reflect and identify areas for improvement in the development of your assignments.

On successful completion of the module, you will be able to:

Cognitive intellectual abilities

1. Assess, synthesise and apply design research methods effectively, in a coherent and cogent manner, appropriate to the context for practice;

Knowledge and understanding

2. Identify the key cultural, theoretical, ethical, and practical issues and constraints attaching to particular research methods and compensate for them in planning the research process;

Subject-specific skills

3. Develop a critical model for practice-led research, applying research findings to an iterative and self-reflexive process of design research and development;

4. Use appropriate ,professional skills in primary and secondary research; locating, recording, assimilating, validating and interpreting information, presenting your findings in subject-relevavt formats.

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