fredag 2 oktober 2015

Theme 5: Design Research



  1. How can media technologies be evaluated?
    Media technology can be evaluated in different ways. You could for example create prototypes to evaluate new technology or applications. You could also gather data through questonnaires. This could also be used on existing products or solutions to be able to develop it further.  
    In the first article we read for this week’s theme, a prototype was created to test a new way of being engaged in football through your phone and it’s vibration function. This prototype could be used to see if the idea was worth further development and application on real-time football games. The prototype only included one football game video clip. By observing the users’ reaction to this prototype, they could make the testing without having the entire product completed and they could still argue that it would work in the same way regardless what clip it is or if it’s real time.

    The study with the football and mobile phone vibration evaluated through tests within the areas effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction. This can be done if different ways. In this study, the effectiveness was measured by looking into where the users thought the ball were in the field when the vibration occured and if it was correct. Efficiency was measured by looking at the time delay for the user to react to the stimili. To measure satisfaction, the user answered questions about using the application and whether the user found it useful.
  2. What role will prototypes play in research?
    Prototypes are a type of design research. It’s a way of testing a system and getting feedback early on in the development process. By testing a prototype, you encounter problems you wouldn’t face in the theoretical designing process.
  3. Why could it be necessary to develop a proof of concept prototype?
    A proof of concept prototype verifies that the concept can be used in real-world applications.
  4. What are characteristics and limitations of prototypes?
    The characteristics of a prototype is that it is not fully developed yet - it is not the end product but a way of getting there. The prototype gives user feedback in the design process. The limitations is therefore that you do testings that are not on the end product - you will have to create new prototypes to get more feedback. This might lead to a bigger system than intended, it might lead to an additional cost for creating these prototypes.
  5. How can design research be communicated/presented?
    You can make prototypes to show design research, you can make personas to describe your users and storyboards on how they would use your product. You can present design research through articles or through presentation tools as Power Point.
Part 2
  1. Can practical design work in itself be considered a 'knowledge contribution'?
    Since it leads to knowledge, I would say so. Practical design work often brings out new sides of a project, when it goes from a theoretical to a practical form.
  2. Are there any differences in design intentions within a research project, compared to design in general? For research projects, design is a tool to get answers to the questions you are investigating. To me, design in general is more for an artist to express themselves or for aesthetics.
  3. Is research in tech domains such as these ever replicable? How may we account for aspects such as time/historical setting, skills of the designers, available tools, etc? In one way yes, in another no. I think you could make the same tests again in different environments. But when you look at the cathegories… Time and historical setting will vary, the skills of the designer as well since it’s quite personal. Available tools can be the same, but technology changes and this changes the research process and design. So you can say that research is replicable, but there will never be the exact same settings.
  4. Are there any important differences with design driven research compared to other research practices? You get a clear presentation of the research and get to see it in some form. Another difference would be that design research  is often qualitative, and this is very different from quantitative research as discussed in the previous theme.
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