Exposed: a Design Research Exchange

What mysteries lie beneath the surface of Design Research practice? What catalyzing forces will shift future paradigms of Design Research?

On March 6th and 7th there will be an event called Exposed: a Design Research Exchange, dedicated to (the future of) Design Research, hosted by Arozona’s State University (ASU), College of Design in Tempe Arizona.

I wish that I had this information sooner. I would love to attend. I came across this event via bicycledesign > Agnete Enga > Smart Design > Smart News.

Sarah Nagle and Dan Formosa from Smart Design will be hosting a workshop. Their workshop title: How to Ask a Stupid Question really made me smile. Why? Well, recently we did a research project / workshop with design students and young design professionals on the experience of the train station platforms. (more here). A task that I gave the young researchers was to ask people on the platform a question like: “Hello, what are you doing?”.

One could argue this to be a stupid question with a predictable answer. But, the results were far more interesting and informative than they expected answer: “I’m waiting for the train”.

Since not all of us @31Volts are trained in design research, we invent our own methods when needed.

There is one I’m going out to try soon. It’s inspired by Linda Yaven. Rapid Knowledge Transfer: Teach Us Something in 7 Minutes. I’m really curious. “Linda Yaven will catalyse our knowledge exchange with a journey through her innovative “Teach Us Something in 7 Minutes” collaborative learning program for rapid rapport.”

Oh, how I loved to be there…