(Journal Artifact) Method-making as a method of designing
Abstract
This article has been selected for a special issue of the online journal Artifact.
The design research community has recently been very active in developing new types of methods, often called innovative methods, through experimentation and action research projects. The stream of innovative methods incorporates visual and creative components that are closer to a designer’s genuine practices, aiming to support projection of users’ own felt-experiences and their creativity. Innovative methods are in principle designed and re-designed in each project, while conventional methods aim to be easily reproducible and portable across situations. In this paper, we illustrate what learning is going on in the making process of the methods, rather than data collected by the methods. Our aim is to foreground the tangible benefits of innovative methods by discussing how the making process of innovative methods actually helps designers build contextual knowledge important for the design situation.
The design research community has recently been very active in developing new types of methods, often called innovative methods, through experimentation and action research projects. The stream of innovative methods incorporates visual and creative components that are closer to a designer’s genuine practices, aiming to support projection of users’ own felt-experiences and their creativity. Innovative methods are in principle designed and re-designed in each project, while conventional methods aim to be easily reproducible and portable across situations. In this paper, we illustrate what learning is going on in the making process of the methods, rather than data collected by the methods. Our aim is to foreground the tangible benefits of innovative methods by discussing how the making process of innovative methods actually helps designers build contextual knowledge important for the design situation.