• Introduction
• Thesis   
  • Personal Design Research definition
  • Human Centered Design Research
  • Thesis goals
  • Work completed
• Project and Methods   
  • Introduction
  • Pre-research   
    • Bounding terms
    • Exploration of terms
  • Recruiting  
    • Overview
    • Process
    • Screening for ambivalence
  • Probes  
    • Overview
    • Evocative probes
    • Blank probes
    • Cameras
    • Distribution
  • Interviews  
    • Overview
    • Teams
    • Spaces
    • Photography
  • Analysis  
    • Approaches
    • Content based
    • Reflections
  • Findings  
    • Overview
    • Reflections
  • Outcomes
• Conclusion

Conclusion:

At the beginning of my thesis process I thought of human centered design research as a way for designers to create new knowledge about the world. Through researching others' projects, beginning to design the Women Who Play project, and teaching, it became clear that I was intuitively uncomfortable with HCDR claims of connection to the social sciences and knowledge production.

Starting over with the question "What can design do well?" and looking at communication design, documentary film, photo journalism—and my own history working with journalist for six years—it became clear to me that my goals were the discovery and revelation of new experiences.

This paper is not about that moment of discovery. Rather, it is about that happened next. How it was applied to the execution of a design research project, and how the working methods of the MDP Super Studio could be used as a starting point for exploration into new techniques.

In this paper I have outlined success and failures of applying the question "What can design do well?" to the current methods I am using. However, the greatest development for me has been my own deepening resolve that designers should be doing research, that they should be looking into the wide world—not just the design world, and that the users of the research can be others beyond the designer himself.

Moving forward both the specific techniques used, and arguments for design research must be developed further. I have gained new understandings of how to work with the returned material from projects and eagerly look forward to applying them to my next project. At the same time, an acceptance of the role of research in design is still developing, and I look forward to clarifying my own thinking on this, as well as engaging others about it.

A final word about women in their twenties who play games. This project has been a first step toward understanding this group. While being a small study—one designer and a few thousand dollars—many solid findings and insights were still found, and a inspirational book developed. Work on this subject is just beginning and I wish to continue it further, either with the material already gathered or in a new research project.

 

<<previous