Abstract

This is a working statement of purpose for the research and work that will be conducted over the course of this term.

entry date: August 1, 2008
OVERVIEW
The aim of Probes: a Designerly Way of Researching is to give participants hands-on experience creating cultural probes—designed objects and activities used in qualitative research studies. Using our design capabilities and intellect, what can we, as designers, create to understand the people for whom we are designing? How can we gather meaningful feedback through the creation of tangible objects and visual communication tools and games that can lead to greater empathy and understanding?

Participants will be divided into small groups and presented with an issue and a question. Using a “blank probe package” provided to each group, participants will be asked to design several “probes” that can help them in their research endeavors. At the end of the exercise, we will come together to critique and evaluate each groups’ set of probes and sketches to help clarify as well as better understand the use of probes as
beneficial tools for research designers.

DESIRED OUTCOME
The desired educational outcome is to give participants hands-on experience that demonstrates the potential of innovative, non-traditional methods of research through the use of probes. The workshop aspires to encourage designers to contribute and apply their skill sets in the research arena.

WORKSHOP CONTENT
The workshop will be limited to 50 minutes. The workshop will begin with a brief overview defining probes, showing samples of probes that have been used in the Media Design Program at Art Center College of Design. Participants will be divided into small groups where they will develop their own probe prototypes and sketches based on a given research question. This will be followed by a critique and short discussion about the results of the exercise. In conclusion, we will share examples of the feedback gathered through actual probe-based design research projects held in our year-long Super Studio course.

Workshop Timeline (0:50min):
(0:07min) Introduction – Presentation: What are Probes?
(0:20min) Probe-Making Exercise (break-up into small groups)
(0:18min) Critique/ Discussion
(0:05min) Conclusion – Presentation: How probes were used in MDP Super Studio projects

entry date: June 27, 2008
Workshop Proposal Update
We have decided to create a workshop focused on getting design educators and design students to better understand the development of probes. With their design skills sets, how can we show the audience how they can channel their knowledge of design and communication to develop meaningful probes and research questions?  Our main question for the main activity of the workshop is: How can a sustainable space affect design students?

entry date: June 27, 2008
Schedule (wk 8 thru wk 11):
wk8: (no class) – work on proposal to submit to design conference, start developing blank objects for main activity package
wk9: present finalized proposal to submit to conference, present refined workshop model, continue to develop main activity package
wk10: finish package for main activity, prepare assets, plan for possible “unexpecteds”
wk11: rehearse workshop, test run workshop

entry date: June 19, 2008
Schedule (wk 7 thru wk 10):
wk7: workshop samples/ research
wk8: no class – work on proposal to submit to design conference
wk9: present finalized proposal, present refined workshop models
wk10: test run workshop

entry date: June 12, 2008
Proposal Update
Since last week, the decision was made to collaborate with Yu-Seung Kim. Opportunities came our way this past week that sparked new ideas on how we were going to approach the topic of design research. We looked into an upcoming AIGA conference called Social Studies Educating Designers in a Connected World and saw both their call for proposals to speak on an MFA panel about the going-ons of our graduate program as well as their call for workshop proposals.

Yu-Seung and I discussed how this conference was a good way to give us focus and direction. Until we saw the call for workshop proposals, we were thinking that writing an academic paper or developing a website were the only ways to convey our understanding of design research. We both felt strongly about the idea of developing a workshop about design research and thinking, so we agreed to take on the challenge.

About the Workshop Proposal
We believe that a workshop is an alternative way to present the ideas of design research. Unlike academic papers or one-way presentations, a workshop is more inviting and can provide an interactive, hands-on way of understanding a basic overview of the design research process.

Our workshop will be geared towards an audience who has an interest in integrating design research methods into current practices. It’s meant for those who are mildly familiar with design research but may be timid to utilize its affordances.

Our idea is to spend the term researching and developing a workshop that will cover three main ideas:
1) WHY: Why design research? How can it be beneficial? What’s the “in?”
2) HOW: What methods do we use to conduct design research? What do we have to consider?
3) and then WHAT? What happens to the research that is conducted? Where does it go? What new questions emerge and what are our reflections?

We started thinking about the affordances of conducting a workshop. Here are some of our earliest thoughts:
- it’s hands-on and interactive
- it can attract people from different fields
- it allows us to gauge what people think about design research
- creates a space for networking
- it’s inviting and not intimidating
- can be a space to provide the latest resources
- it is a space that allows discussion and direct interaction with others
- it can evolve with the times and change according to the audience/ context

The Ideal Goal
Yu-seung and I have committed to submitting a workshop proposal to the AIGA Social Studies Educating Designers in a Connected World conference. The proposal is due July 15, 2008. If we are accepted, we will attend the conference in mid-October. If we are not accepted, we will still develop the workshop and attempt to conduct it on campus. In the meantime, we will be researching and compiling data to justify and strengthen the workshop curriculum, as well as create iterations that will hopefully lead to a streamlined system of its deliverance. It is our greater goal to develop a workshop 1) that we can conduct several times and 2) that gives us the flexibility to evolve it as well as customize it for specific audiences.

We Are Being Cautious
Before we agreed to develop a workshop, we both realized that as we research and nurture the workshop curriculum we must remain cautious that 1) we don’t disseminate the wrong idea about design research and 2) that we don’t lead people to think that design research is an easy thing to do. Rather, we want to create an environment that stimulates the interest of an ever-growing audience of new thinkers, educators and researchers in an inviting and inspiring way that builds a desire in people to delve further in design research methods and philosophies.

entry date: June 03, 2008
Reflections
When you practice, you learn. When you are involved, you understand.

What better way to understand design research than to actually do it yourself? Super Studio 1 and 2 were practice grounds that got the wheels turning about design research. What I realized over the course of these past two terms is that design research has, in a way, always existed. We’ve just never really tried to define it until recently. Generally speaking, it seems that the humanistic realizations that researchers have made in the past were considered more like byproducts of research studies. In the case of design research, I think we try and place emphasis on discovering those more humanistic realizations. What more, I think we try and exemplify how those realizations can adversely affect individuals, communities and environments.

Proposal
My focus for this term is to tackle the question, WHAT IS DESIGN RESEARCH? Using my experience as a Super Studian, as a designer and as a person who enjoys researching, I aim to better contextualize this question, as well as break it down into more detail. I also aim to discover within what new territories design research can exist. Where has it worked? And where does it have the potential to work?

My intent is to write a focused paper that will cover the definition of design research as well as provide several examples of how it has worked. I also want to uncover opportunity spaces for where it can and has yet to exist.

Why This Direction?
I have always been interested in research, even as an undergraduate at UCLA. Anthropology, social structures, cultural movements and history have always attracted me. Before coming to Art Center, I was a Youth Services Coordinator. My job was to answer questions starting with HOW and WHY in relation to children, families and communities. No book or statistic could tell me how to take care of my clients. It was through observation, personal contact and interaction that I learned about the needs of the youth with whom I worked. Often times, needs were met through the use of arts-based workshops. When I realized I was limited in what I could teach or provide through the affordances of art, I decided to return to school to practice design. What was serendipitous was that I was able to find a program, namely this Media Design Program, that could help me contextualize the path I had taken in my life. At first I thought it was simply Super Studio courses and my exposures to design researchers in this program that influenced this direction, but after much thought, like I said before, I think the idea of design research has always existed in my life.

Audience
• Those who are interested in design research: educators, scientists, researchers, students…
• Those who are unaware of this realm of research, but would benefit from it