Visual Research Methods in the Design Process

Introduction

Design, like the arts, is often regarded as a visual discipline. The design disciplines have, throughout their histories, actively engaged visual methods of problem-solving. Architecture, industrial design, graphic design, and interior design—some of the core design disciplines—clearly employ a variety of visual techniques in their standard praxis. The creation of aesthetically appealing artifacts is often described as one of design's primary goals and, therefore, the research that is conducted in the design disciplines includes several visual methods. These typically include photography, videography, sketching, diagramming, storyboarding, model-making, prototyping, and so on. A variety of visual practices exist as a central component of all phases of design methodology, from the early research in understanding user needs and leading up to the final implementation or manufacturing. In fact, one may say that design as a discipline has been obsessed with the visual ever since its inception. However, the growing use of ethnography in design (mostly observations, interviews, surveys, etc.) might, in some ways, signal somewhat of a turn away from the visual. In the world of product design, a project that focuses primarily on designing an object's shape or form is often referred to as ‘styling,’ and some designers are offended to be referred to as stylists. They believe that their work extends beyond the visual. Designers are embracing the notion that their task is to solve people's real needs, not merely create beautiful artifacts. Therefore, while there may be a growing recognition and acceptance of visual research methods in the social sciences, design research, over the past few years, seems to be trying to get beyond the visual.

Understanding Design

What is design? This question is continually asked by scholars within the design community, and the answers vary widely, in part due to the relative youth of the design disciplines. In addition, as it evolves, design takes on new meanings, adopts new methodologies, addresses a broader range of [Page 151]problems, and redefines its scope, making it challenging to find a singular definition. A comparative study by Atwood et al. (2002) demonstrates some of the semantic diversity that exists in the various definitions of design (Figure 8.1).

Figure 8.1 Diversity in definitions of design, an updated version of the diagram from Atwood et al. (2002)

The authors explain that this list is by no means exhaustive; the individual definitions represent a small sample extracted from seminal definitions that scholars have formulated over time. Some common threads do emerge from this diversity. It is clear, for instance, that all design is a form of problem-solving and planning for the future. The employment of such terms as ‘action,’ ‘change,’ ‘inventing,’ and ‘creating’ in these definitions establishes design as a generative process of transformation that leads to tangible outcomes. If the goal of design, as Max Bill of the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm once explained, is ‘to participate in the making of a new culture—from spoon to city’ (Lindinger, 1991: 10), its scope is vast and the diversity in definitions is only to be expected.

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