DESIGNERLY WAYS OF KNOWING

1. Does design education’s inability to clearly articulate its process and concerns have adverse affects on student retention. Are we losing too many good students to other fields?
2. Pye states that, “in general invention comes before theory. The world of doing and making is usually ahead of the world of understanding – technology leads to science, not vice versa as is often believed.” As technology and society continue to progress do we see this system of creation followed by understanding, being at all altered?
3. Design is a skill that requires one to both “Know How and Know That”, is one more essential to design than the other or would a hierarchal view of this only weaken the field?

THIS IS RESEARCH BY DESIGN

1. Verbeke states, “Research outputs should also follow the media which are most appropriate to the field: maps, drawing, sketches, model, and so on.”; however in these early stages of research I have found myself and many others relying heavily on reading or writing. I attribute this to our current level of uncertainty, however over the past several years we have all been trained to think through the act of making. Is focusing so heavily on literature a mistake in a design thesis, if not for the work but for the designer themselves?
2. Much design research seems to be focused heavily on looking into curiosities and developing progressive knowledge for both self and profession. A large portion of this research however may not have a direct monetary value. What problems does this cause for the field within our capitalist society?
3. “Formulating a question implies delimiting space in which a possible answer may be found. Yet research often resembles an uncertain quest in which the questions or topics only materialize during the journey, and often may change as well.” This analysis of design research suggests that the work with proper interest and rigor could continue/evolve endlessly, and since making is an inherent part of design research production of tangible things is occurring all throughout. So how does one know when to stop and is it a decision made by author, peers, or the abstract deadline?