Science and design: The implications of different forms of accountability

Abstract

This chapter sets out to explicitly contrast scientific and design approaches to knowing. In both cases, practitioners create situations for people to engage, and the results may be of interest to the research community. Scientific researchers need to be able to defend the logic of each step of their process from hypothesis to test to theory. Design, in contrast, relies simply on the success of the artefacts it creates. This implies a great degree of methodological liberty, including the potential to create open-ended designs that occasion new and illuminating engagements with the world.