Introduction to Design Research

Dr. Will Kurlinkus

Change By Design
What did you read? What did it mean to you?
1. Designs Are Arguments
2. We Live in a Technocracy
“What we need are new choices—new products that
balance the needs of individuals and of society as a whole;
new ideas that tackle the global challenges of health,
poverty, and education; new strategies that result in
differences that matter and a sense of purpose that
engages everyone affected by them.”

3. Alternative Futures Are Always

Available
Design Thinking

¤  Technology-centered design: make it efficient

¤  User-centered design: make it easy to use

¤  Participatory design: involve users in the actual

production.

¤  Human-centered design: understand the messy,

emotional, transitory nature of humans and design
towards that.
Design Thinking
 What Role Might English Graduates
Play In This?

1.  Engineers don’t think about humans. I know this from

experience.

2.  The process of human-centered and user-centered

design involves negotiations, translations, argument, and
storytelling.

3.  Human-centered design involves a messy understanding

of humanity.
 Design Researcher

¤  If you were asked to help design a new and innovative

English Major, what types of people, places, and/or things
would you look to for design inspiration in Japan?

¤  Please tell us 3 examples (people, places, or things) that

you believe can inform or inspire the design of this new
English Major concept. These examples can be
completely outside of the university context!
 Key Terms to Look Out For

¤  Stakeholders

¤  Design thinking steps: inspiration (the problem/opportunity),

ideation (the process of developing and testing ideas),
implementation (the realworld production)

¤  Prototyping (early and often)

¤  Constraints: feasibility (what can we actually do given money,

time, and manpower in the near future), viability (what makes
sense for a long term future success), desirability (what makes
sense to real people)

¤  Brief: “Reinvent bathroom cleaning with an emphasis on what

was enigmatically called ‘the everyday clean’” (24).
 Our Design Brief

1.  Make the English Major better.

2.  Constraints:
¤  Budget: 0 dollars unless you can get the money elsewhere
¤  Deadlines:
¤  Must include research (interviews and observations) of multiple
stakeholders and competitors
¤  Must end in several small prototypes
¤  Must have a plan for sustainability into the future

3.  Key concepts: English club, recruitment, alumni, community,

training, recognition, employment, honors, participation,
tradition, innovation.

4.  Please draw inspiration from our competitors but also well
afield from the university.
 Group Meeting

¤  Name, contact info, free time

¤  Key skills and experiences

¤  What you want to get a job as/train for in this assignment

(think in terms of a resume statement)

¤  Brainstorm possibilities (or who you can go to to get

possible ideas—friends, professors, etc.)

¤  Assign research and action tasks for next meeting

 What should we call ourselves?

¤  Platypus

¤  R+D

¤  Skunkworks

¤  Shadow Division