Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

How the tools of design research can involve designers more directly with objects, products and services they design; from human-centered research methods to formal experimentation, process models, and application to real world design problems. The tools of design research, writes Brenda Laurel, will allow designers "to claim and direct the power of their profession." Often neglected in the various curricula of design schools, the new models of design research described in this book help designers to investigate people, form, and process in ways that can make their work more potent and more delightful. "At the very least," Peter Lunenfeld writes in the preface, "design research saves us from reinventing the wheel. At its best, a lively research methodology can reinvigorate the passion that so often fades after designers join the profession." The goal of the book is to introduce designers to the many research tools that can be used to inform design as well as to ideas about how and when to deploy them effectively. The chapter authors come from diverse institutions and enterprises, including Stanford University, MIT, Intel, Maxis, Studio Anybody, Sweden's HUMlab, and Big Blue Dot. Each has something to say about how designers make themselves better at what they do through research, and illustrates it with real world examples-case studies, anecdotes, and images. Topics of this multi-voice conversation include qualitative and quantitative methods, performance ethnography and design improvisation, trend research, cultural diversity, formal and structural research practice, tactical discussions of design research process, and case studies drawn from areas as unique as computer games, museum information systems, and movies. Interspersed throughout the book are one-page "demos," snapshots of the design research experience. Design Research charts the paths from research methods to research findings to design principles to design results and demonstrates the transformation of theory into a richly satisfying and more reliably successful practice.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface: The Design Cluster (p. 10)
• Introduction: Muscular Design (p. 16)
• Acknowledgments (p. 20)
• People
• Section Introduction The Changing Role of Research (p. 22)
• Qualitative Methods: From Boring to Brilliant (p. 23)
• Ethnography and Critical Design Practice (p. 30)
• The Paradox of Design Research (p. 39)
• Designing for the New Old (p. 41)
• Demo: Design Improvisation (p. 49)
• Hispanic Culture in Design Research (p. 55)
• Overview of Quantitative Methods in Design Research (p. 63)
• User Requirements (p. 70)
• Form
• Section Introduction Design (As) Research (p. 82)
• Speculation, Serendipity and Studio Anybody (p. 83)
• Toward a Definition of the Decorational (p. 94)
• Demo: DesignWriting (p. 101)
• Sensory Anomalies (p. 109)
• Spontaneous Cinema as Design Practice (p. 118)
• Game Forms for New Outcomes (p. 129)
• Strategy, Tactics and Heuristics for Research (p. 135)
• Process
• Section Introduction Test Pilots (p. 144)
• Bringing Clarity to the "Fuzzy Front End" (p. 145)
• Research Methods for Designing Effective Experiences (p. 155)
• Enabling Design (p. 164)
• Non-Assumptive Research (p. 172)
• Play as Research (p. 176)
• Demo: Creating a Culture of Design Research (p. 185)
• Interdisciplinary Design Research (p. 193)
• Conceptual Designs (p. 201)
• Moving Your Idea Through Your Organization (p. 212)
• Demo: Vibe-Hunting (p. 221)
• Living Proof (p. 225)
• Research to Fuel the Creative Process (p. 234)
• Action
• Section Introduction Reports from the Field (p. 242)
• "You Can't Bring That Game to School!" (p. 244)
• SimSmarts (p. 253)
• Social Impact by Design (p. 260)
• Researching America's Army (p. 268)
• A Virtual Walk on the Moon (p. 276)
• Demo: Mobium (p. 285)
• Research and the Movies (p. 293)
• Real Brand Alignment (p. 309)
• Conclusion: Beauty, Brains and Bravery (p. 316)
• References and Acknowledgments (p. 317)
• Index (p. 323)
• Biographies (p. 329)