From the Observable to the Explorable: Investigating Creative
Research in Design as a Means for Guiding Critical Action
Written in Collaboration with Tania Allen, Associate Professor at North Carolina State University
ABSTRACT
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 problem-solving to sense making. 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 outputs, 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 in the 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 can be tested in open-ended environments—operate as a condition for creative research to succeed?
- How might creative research be used to truly practice deeper empathy that moves beyond the physical and into the messier areas of cognitive, emotional and even philosophical worldviews as part of the participatory and co-design process?