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Talks and Poster Presentations (without Proceedings-Entry):

F. Glock:
"Design Work Practices";
Talk: International Conference on Design Principles and Practices, Sapienza University of Rome; 2011-02-02 - 2011-02-04.



English abstract:
An interpretative approach to the empirical study of design processes will be adopted. Designing is conceived as a social process of interpretation and construction of meaning, and potentially of context generation.
The approach assumes that design goals are more or less incomplete and vague at the beginning of a design process and are interpreted in contexts and in part are created by designers in the design process on the basis of their experience, embodied skills, and practices. The interpretative paradigm in design research seeks to observe, investigate, and describe practices that designers use in the process. The question of research is how interpretations in particular design processes are actually achieved by designers and participants.
This requires case study methodology and ethnographic observations; video records as data enables detailed analysis of practices and will be presented.
Analysis adopts sociological, sociolinguistic `sensitizing concepts´ such as contexts and frames (Bateson, Goffman). The style of analysis is inspired by Workplace Studies and Science and Technology Studies. Interpretative analysis takes into account designers´ alignments which constitute `participation frameworks´ and ground designers´ multimodal practices in different media (language, drawing, gesture). Goffman´s (1981) concept of `footing´ is deployed to reveal subtle shifts in stances designers take in designing, and the framing practices they use. Some practices will be described.
The approach aims to contribute to Schön´s (1991) `reflective turn´ in design research. Designers may benefit from research results as they can use the researchers´ descriptions which make their transparent practices `visible´ as a kind of `mirror´ to stimulate reflection on their taken for granted routines and practices and if so change their routines.

Keywords:
Design Research Methodology, Case Study, Context, Frame, Interpretative Flexibility, Participation

Created from the Publication Database of the Vienna University of Technology.