This week's theme has been focused around Design Research and has consisted of reading three assigned papers and two lectures during the week.
During this week I found the reading of the papers the most interesting part. They focused around interesting concepts to me, especially the one by Réhman et al. since I am very interested in football. The paper was a bit dated, from 2008, but their ideas about being notified about match events in your phone is something which has been adapted in today' smartphones but in a different way. After the reading we reflected on concepts such as prototyping, proof of concept, empirical data and design research in general.
The two lectures by Haibo Li and Anders Lundström, two of the researchers who had written the papers we had read, did not give me as much as the lectures usually do unfortunately. I found the one by Li very all over the place and I got confused by how fast he changed subject and by the way he had no clear line of argument in his lecture; the most interesting part of this lecture to me was when he discussed how one has to not only focus on solving a problem but also look at the definition of the problem itself since sometimes the problem is looked at in the wring way. This felt relevant to both design research and to be honest life in general. The lecture by Lundström was not prepared on his part, since he was not suppose to be the one having the lecture, so it got a bit improvised instead. Due to the lack of preparation I had a hard time following the line of thought this lecture as well. Still he had interesting ideas on design research! The discussion about the importance of a section on implications or something similar in a design research paper was perhaps the most interesting, a discussion on how something cannot be considered design research if one does not have something which the research implies, could be in the form of for example guidelines or advice.
Overall this week I found learning about prototyping the most engaging. When doing my pre-reflection this week I focused mainly on prototyping within industries, where a prototype is a model on which one can perform tests and after that make iterations in order to arrive at a final product. But during Lundström's lecture he talked a bit about the difference between prototyping in design research and in industries and that really got me thinking on differences between them! In design research a prototype is mainly used in order to test out ideas and actually have something tangible when making tests, the goal of this is not mainly to make iterations on it in order to arrive at a final product. Instead research is performed on it and one arrives at conclusions and implications of the research.
Overall this week I missed the seminar since we never got to actually discuss the theme with each other and so I look forward to reading the blogs of other students! I had learnt a bit about design research in previous courses so the concepts was not entirely new to me, but I still found the concept interesting in itself even though the lectures were not as interesting as I would have hoped.
I agree with you that reading the papers was the most interesting part of last weeks theme. For me the lectures were also a bit confusing and it seemed that both lecturers did not really follow a line in what they said. Although I like how you pointed out that it made you think about how important it is to not only focus on the problem but also on the definition of the problem and the solution. You did a very good job summarizing the last theme and I like how you structured your reflection. I also had the feeling that a seminar would have been helpful to discuss the topic, especially because it is very new to most of us.
SvaraRaderaHello Josefine! A most stunning reflection indeed! I agree with most things that you say in your reflection and I think you give a good view on this weeks theme. I also wrote about prototypes from an industrial production point of view in my pre-reflection which I realized is the wrong way to think when talking about prototypes in a research point of view. I think you can elaborate on when you write about notifications from football matches having been implemented in phones today in some way. You can give an explanation in what way notifications today differs from the way presented in the article.
SvaraRaderaHi! Your reflection is very interesting. I like your statement that "a prototype is mainly used in order to test out ideas", I think that prototypes actually bring our ideas to reality and set the direction of the research. I also find interesting the question of selection implications. But after the lecture I still don't have clear understanding what cannot be considered as design research.
SvaraRaderaYour post is well structured and summarized. Great job!
You seem to share most of the people’s view that the lectures about this theme haven’t been as helpful as previous ones. However, you were still able to provide a good overview about design research and prototyping. I agree that the most relevant information from the first lecture was to focus on the problem definition and that the point of view on a problem has a great impact on the difficulty of the problem solving. Apart from that I also thought that the part about prototyping was the most useful knowledge. Especially the distinction between industrial and research prototypes was new to me.
SvaraRaderaHi Josefine,
SvaraRaderaI also have to agree that the paper written by Réhman et al. was very interesting to read even if the research was a bit dated. Furthemore, I have to say that you did a good job reproducing the two lectures of the week in this reflection post. Good Job! However and in contrast to you I found this week’s structure with two lectures better than the prior weeks as it was mostly very difficult to discuss the themes from theme three on.
Hi Josefine!
SvaraRaderaWhat I liked the most about your reflection is that you say that you've been "the most engaged" in one of the concepts (prototyping). It makes me feel like you've not only understood it, but also felt that it was interesting, which is a really good thing! It's a shame that you didn't find the lectures interesting. Even more so if you were interested by the theme!
I think that you did a good job in your reflection though, and I really like that you dare being critical about things you didn't like. Thumbs up!
Keep up the good job!
Hey!
SvaraRaderaI agree with you that both lectures haven't been executed very well and were hard to follow. But I still feel that I got a nice picture and clarification of this theme. I would be probably even better if we had seminars. You were maybe searching for more new information considering that you were already familiar with the topic.
I like how you pointed out the fact that the process of defining the project should be incorporated in everyday life situations. I agree that this approach would greatly increase the quality of life of a person.
I thought the difference between prototypes in design research and in industries was pretty much the only interesting (and/or understandable) part of Anders' lecture, too. Still, I wished he either went into it way more detailedly, or alternatively allow for more discussion to be had on the topic. Neither happened, though, and with the absence of any seminars that was a major letdown.
SvaraRaderaHi,
SvaraRaderaI agree with you that these two lectures both had some deficiency.In the first lecture given by Haibo Li, he stressed the importance of defining a problem and forming a good idea, whereas he did not tell much about what the prototype is and what the prototype is used for. Similarly, during the second lecture given by Anders, he used a complicated logic to explain the use of the prototype.Although I tried my hard to follow his pace, I finally failed. Apparently,you have a good understanding on the meaning of prototype.I like "In design research a prototype is mainly used in order to test out ideas" You seems to grasp the core of the conception. Keep it up!