week 2 reading

A Review of Forty Years of Design Research
By Nigan Bayazit

"Design Research is systematic inquiry whose goal is knowledge of, or in, the embodiment of configuration, composition, structure, purpose, value, and meaning in man-made things and systems. – L Bruce Archer."

Design Research is part of the science of the artificial. It concerns with numerous obligations of design to humanity. Such as how designed objects work, how designers work, and the meaning of the outcome. However, the purpose of design research is to investigate and research on the topic, which began from the emergence of Bauhaus and modernization.

Design research was first applied to military weapons and rescue aids for the World Wars. When the Second World War ended, military technology and research methodology was transferred and applied to solving every day problems. Design methods utilized various scientific engineering disciplines and looked more at rational design applications. This was the First Generation of Design Methods. The Second Generation incorporated the user's decisions, as well as social aspects.
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Paradox of Modern design Education
By Jessica Helfand

Helfand pointed out an interesting phenomenon of modern designers who are freshly out of design programs. She used an example of Konstantin Stanislavsky, who revolutionized theatre system and compared it to the current situation in Graphic Design. She indicates that the Graphic Design students are over exaggerating their message to a point where it loses its honesty and genuine tone. What Helfand suggest is for students to work with an emotional honesty, that contains humanity and truthful attitude.
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The Problem: The Heart of the Research Process


Basic Knowledge - research that are associated with enhancing basic knowledge about the physical, biological, psychological, or social aspects. It is more scholarly and academic, which deals with human being's theorectical conceptualization.

Applied Research - research that is used to lead to a decision or solve a problem through observation or data collecting.

Problems to encounter:
- it should be not used for self-enlightenment.
- Its sole purpose is not to compare two sets of data.
- calculating the coefficient of correlation between data.
- Problems that will end with a yes or no answer.

Looking for a problem:
- observe your surrounding
- read literature
- attend professional conference
- seek advice of experts
- choose an interesting topic