Design Practice Research: Conditions and Outcomes

Abstract

There is no agreed framework for classifying what is, and is not, design practice research. This is a problem at a time when funders are interested in supporting practice research in the university context and look at design research as an example. This article addresses this challenge. Based on the key themes identified from a literature review—situated understanding, networked knowledge production, community of validation, and the knowledge status of objects produced through designing—we propose two frameworks. Collectively, the classificatory framework (specifying conditions) and the analytical framework (identifying outcomes) distinguish practice research in design from just practice on the one hand, and just research on the other. While allowing for historical and contextual variation, the approach offers a way of classifying practice research in design that is supported by practice researchers and that funders understand, without having to insist that there is something “ineffable” or ultimately inexpressible about practice research.