Design Research: Embracing the Diversity: ICED11 Design Society Keynote

Design is a topic that has been studied from many disciplinary perspectives, each bringing particular methodological traditions to bear and yielding many different insights into the subject, but the diversity has meant that it has been difficult to achieve a coherent view on research in the domain. This presentation will explore the nature of this diversity and will propose ways in which the research community may work together to develop a consolidated understanding of the design research space. After first exploring the different communities that contribute to design research, and reflecting on a range of topics that have been studied, a number of ways will be presented in which research in the domain might be characterised, building especially on experiences with ICED conferences in recent years. In particular, design research will be differentiated according to the time scales being studied, the number of participants, the complexity and degree of originality of the design context, the research approach and the degree of abstraction employed. Suggestions will then be made for how the research community may collaborate in the future to identify where there are commonalities and differences in results and approaches.