2022 journal article
From the Observable to the Explorable: Investigating Creative Research in Design as a Means for Guiding Critical Action
Dialectic, 3(1).
open access via quod.lib.umich.edu (publisher PDF)As design and design research continues to evolve to address increasingly systemic and complex problems, the language of what designers "do" similarly evolves along a spectrum from problemsolving to sense-making. 1 An opportunity also exists within this dialogue to consider new forms of hybrid research methods that complement and support design as an independent domain of knowledge.Creative research -commonly used in the fine arts and humanities to examine how a given individual's or group's use of original ideas or imagination guides the operation of specific methods and offers key insights for gathering a type of data that has wide-ranging advantages in design research.It also provides techniques and perspectives that designers might integrate and build upon as they interrogate various aspects of their decision-making processes -especially as they attempt to dismantle preconceptions and biases regarding findings.By critically assessing a series of case studies, this paper will explore the following questions:• How can creative research help designers identify and formulate critical questions that challenge their own assumptions about what is informing their recommendations for preferred conditions for intervention?• In what ways can the act of play -creating joyful, low-stakes situations where ideas canbe tested in open-ended environments -operate as a condition for creative research to succeed?