Design PhD Conference 2010

Conference Theme

The conference offered an opportunity for PhD students, Masters students, recent graduates and businesses to meet, exchange knowledge and ideas, and learn about the latest developments in design thinking, methods and research projects.   

The aim of the conference was to facilitate debate and the sharing of experiences concerning practice led research ‘for’, ‘into’, and ‘through’ designing.  As well as exploring the nature of communities involved.  At this conference ‘designing’ was defined as developing and organising greater benefit in our creative processes and the outcomes.

The Design PhD Conference was a collaborative event between the School of Design, Northumbria University and ImaginationLancaster at Lancaster University.   

Overview of the conference by Professor Kev Hilton, Centre for Design Research, Northumbria University.

Keynote- Prof. Mike Press
Chair of Design Policy at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, delivered what was agreed by all to be an inspiring keynote, with his engaging perspective on design research and practice. He showed and described a broad selection of work from Jewellers to Animators, each of whom had made international impacts in their subjects from human computer interaction to cleaning up the planet. This brought the audience to a conclusion that the way ahead for design is in Social Innovation.

While design practice seems to emphasise the making of things, it must not be forgotten that its successes also depend upon the communication of design, with both the making and the communication being developed together so that the benefits are appreciated more effectively by its stakeholders and users.

It was also commented that while design research is among the most undervalued of disciplines, it has travelled further and faster than any other discipline, attracting travelling companions along the way, giving designers greater opportunity to go beyond design for desire to join and empower more socially responsible communities of practice.

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Researcher Presentations-

Emma Jefferies spoke about change in mindset which led to a short discussion about the wider meaning and integration of design and research.
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Poone Yazdanapah followed with a description of her project on traditional Iranian courtyards, and it was concluded that her contribution to new knowledge would emphasise the substantive values associated with these courtyards.
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Dr. Nicholas Spencer described a year on from completion, in terms of what has come next and how to put the experience into perspective, using a cycling metaphor, of knowing how best to recover from a challenge to stay fit.

Iona Pemberton-Billing then described her experience of PhD Design study from a non-design background, investigating decision-tree modelling , concluding initially the importance of relating to learning through prior experience, but leading to the more effective learning, through community experience.

Emmanouil Chatzakis described his thinking and approach to the investigation of ‘Invisible Wisdom’ in SMEs, and after discussion as to what design brought to the research question, it was concluded it is in the way that designers can facilitate deeper understanding through the use of visual tools.

Yoori Koo spoke about her Corporate Social Responsibility project, providing a new approach to an area where there is limited research to date.
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Marianne Wilde who described her practice based art research investigating the visual communications of DNA metaphors. There were concerns in the early stages that the contribution to new knowledge was not yet clear, nevertheless such an exciting project, which stirred much debate, should enable effective feedback from the audiences of the work to indentify a strong contribution to new knowledge and its understanding.
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Plenary- The first part of the discussion looked at the presentations, and common points to conclude from them. It was suggested that design needed to define its own terms engagement for rigour, and not keep attempting to hold to scientific approaches to rigour which at times appear quite inappropriate and may miss the value of design. It was argued that there should be opportunity to immerse in a subject without original question, and through playing with ideas, identify a doctoral contribution. This raised the question over shared meaning of terms, and what we mean by ‘knowledge’. It was also commented that much published design research appears dull, because of attempting to hold to expected scientific methods. It was concluded that design should build confidence around its own processes of evidencing and effectively communicating, through appropriate media, the world-new knowledge.

The final part of the plenary looked at what this conference could become in the future. The first two conferences have run themes, but is that the way forwards? While there was a suggestion that there may be interest in a Design Thinking Histories theme following discussion of the day, it was generally agreed that a themeless conference, supporting a wider community of PGRs, with themed breakout workshops might be the way ahead. These workshops could be facilitated to develop collaborative research synergies. The conference organisers at Northumbria’s School of Design, and Lancaster’s  ImaginationLancaster, are still inviting suggestions.

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To view a programme from the conference and descriptions of the talks please download the pdf on the right of this page.