Research and Practice (Fall 2024) is a 45-hour course at the University of Florida that immerses Design and Visual Communications (MXD) graduate students in the practice of doing design research. Students explore qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods through discussions, case studies, writing, fieldwork, and presentations. My approach emphasizes participatory and critical learning, treating students as design researchers rather than learners.
In Fall 2024, researchers learned why and how design research was practiced in this graduate program, in the US, and other nations, both in industry and academic settings. Their learning journey was characterized by developing the metacognitive skills that differentiate design research from design practice. This was explained in two recorded lectures:
In simpler words, researchers consolidate their trajectories as design researchers by learning how to learn and designing how to design. We had several opportunities to hone metacognitive skills: lectures, codesign experiments, interaction analysis laboratory, seminar presentations, visual diaries, writing assignments, peer review assignments, and book autopsies.
These activities explored several designerly ways of knowing as a means to develop a critical consciousness of the main product of design research: design knowledge. Instead of learning how to apply design knowledge to design products, design researchers will learn how to apply design products to produce design knowledge. It is the opposite of what design students typically learn in their undergraduate studies.
To understand the underlying rules of learning/design that can be metadesigned/metalearned, we employed both low-tech technologies such as visual thinking and generative artificial intelligence. These technologies are introduced in these two recorded lectures:
The course generative themes have been carefully chosen out of the knowledge gaps identified by the Critical Pedagogy Seminar hosted by the design researchers Azadeh Jalali and Lucia Londoño in the Spring 2024 Graduate Seminars. In the figure below, the chosen themes are highlighted by the translucent orange bubbles.
Semester outline
Week 1 – 08/27/2024 – The MXD studio and field experience
Course overview. Making a Lego Serious Play model of the MXD studio/field experience and its political context. Intro to visual diaries, self-managed studio policy, and graded assignments. Walking through our social network channels (Teams, LinkedIn, Instagram, Canvas, etc). Use of AI policy. Working with faculty. Master roadmap and other UF’s resources. How to download and read an academic paper. Self-reflective studying habits.
Reading assignment for this class:
Freire, P., 1983. The importance of the act of reading. Journal of education, 165(1), pp.5-11. https://www.jstor.org/stable/42772842
Lecture:
Week 2 – 09/03/2024 – Differences between design and design research.
Peculiarities of design research knowledge, design epistemology, intellectual property, and knowledge commons. The role of visual thinking and artificial intelligence in design research.
Reading assignments for this class:
Permission to Muck About (2024), 60 minutes, by David Philip Green and Joseph Lindley. https://designresearch.works/permission-to-muck-about/
Jalali, Azadeh; Londoño, Lucia and van Amstel, Frederick M. C. (under review) Now we know: Findings from a critical pedagogy experiment on design research knowledge. Visual Arts Research Journal.
Lecture:
Week 3 – 09/10/2024 – Participant observation and interaction analysis methods
Observing in the studio X observing in the field. Watching and interpreting the recording of an interaction analysis session. Using artificial intelligence in qualitative data analsys. Choosing a physical book to read.
Reading assignment for this class:
Jordan, B., & Henderson, A. (1995). Interaction analysis: Foundations and practice. The journal of the learning sciences, 4(1), 39-103. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327809jls0401_2
Week 4 – 09/17/2024 – Design research at the MXD studio and field
Each researcher will present an overview of a research paper published by a MXD former or current researcher, taking into account the author’s Curriculum Vitae. Design research career prospects and trajectories.
Reading assignment for this class (each student picks one):
Rogal, M. (2000). South of the Border. Down Mexico Way. Visible Language (pp. 142-161).
Griffin, D., & Hull, B. (2024). Making Space Online: Situating Complex, Intersectional Identities.
Ghiotti, N., Clulow, D., Cheon, S., Cui, K., & Kang, H. (2023, October). Prototyping Kodi: Defining Design Requirements to Develop a Virtual Chat-bot for Autistic Children and Their Caregivers. In Companion Publication of the 2023 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (pp. 126-131).
Ghiotti, N., Clulow, D., Cheon, S., Cui, K., & Kang, H. (2023, October). Prototyping Kodi: Defining Design Requirements to Develop a Virtual Chat-bot for Autistic Children and Their Caregivers. In Companion Publication of the 2023 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (pp. 126-131).
Corona, G. (2024) Participatory design research, documenting the experience of Gainesville local drag performers., in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.1287
Rogal, M. (2015) Dsign Research. DECOLONIZING GRAPHIC DESIGN https://ead.yasar.edu.tr/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/EAD-11-1394.pdf
Hernandez, M. (2016) Design Research, Storytelling, and Entrepreneur Women in Rural Costa Rica: a case study, in Lloyd, P . and Bohemia, E. (eds.), F uture F ocused Thinking – DRS International Conf erence 2016, 27 – 30 June, Brighton, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2016.417
Rogal, M., & Sánchez, R. (2017). Codesigning for development. In Routledge handbook of sustainable design (pp. 250-262). Routledge.
Hernández, G., Rogal, M., & Sánchez, R. (2018). Conversation: Transforming Design: Indigeneity and Mestizaje in Latin America.
Rogal, Maria, traduccion del ingles por Membreño Leila y Salazar, Graciela, Radicales Con Voz Radicals with a Voice, 1999 Zed: Edges and Intersections. Latin America/Florida. https://www.academia.edu/7339930/Radicales_con_Voz_Radicals_with_a_Voice
Links to an external site.
Rogal, M.(2020) Embracing Many Worlds: The Wixárika Calendar, in Leitão, R., Noel, L. and Murphy, L.
(eds.), Pivot 2020: Designing a World of Many Centers – DRS Pluriversal Design SIG Conference, 4 June,
held online. https://doi.org/10.21606/pluriversal.2020.101
Week 5 – 09/24/2024 – Pluriversal seminar: design research across worlds
Each researcher will present an overview of design research in a world they know well using a long-term Lego Serious Play model as a presentation device. Before that, they will share their visual thinking on the reading assignment.
Reading assignment for this class:
Noel, L.-A., Ruiz, A., van Amstel, F. M. C., Udoewa, V., Verma, N., Botchway, N. K., Lodaya, A., & Agrawal, S. (2023). Pluriversal Futures for Design Education. She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation (Vol. 9, Issue 2, pp. 179–196). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sheji.2023.04.002
Week 6 – 10/01/2024 – Writing design research and design languages
Overview of the MXD thesis project proposal and the writing assignment for this course. On the fly peer review of a paper. Writing with Lego Serious Play. Exchanging visual diaries.
Reading assignment for this class:
João Ferreira (2020) Writing Is Seeing – towards a Designerly Way of Writing,
The Design Journal, 23:5, 697-713, https://doi.org/10.1080/14606925.2020.1806521
Lecture:
Week 7 – 10/08/2024 – Pattern-based codesign and virtual exchange
Pattern language in architecture, interface design, and participatory design. Producing shared design spaces. Experiment with design card decks.
Reading assignment for this class:
Leitner H. (2015). “Working with Patterns: An Introduction.” In Bollier, D., and Helfrich, S. (Eds.). Patterns of Commoning. Levellers Press.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305618591_Working_with_Patterns_An_Introduction
Lecture:
Week 8 – 10/15/2024 – Representing contradictions in expansive designs
Identifying contradictions through qualitative data analysis. Representing contradictions through imagery, games, theater, and other means.
Reading assignment for this class:
Phan, Hien; Van Amstel, F. M. C. (under evaluation). The contradiction of diversity in design student body. Diseña Journal.
Week 9 – 10/22/2024 – Dealing with the contradiction of race in design research
Design thinking and codesign. Design toolkits. Producing shared design activities. Experiment with the Racism Untaught Toolkit.
Reading assignment for this class:
Mercer, L. E., & Moses, T. (2023). Chapter 1: The Framework. In: Racism Untaught: Revealing and Unlearning Racialized Design. MIT Press.
Week 10 – 10/29/2024 – Life cycle of design research
Overview of the processes of data generation, collection, analysis, theorization, writing, and publication. Emphasis on data analysis.
Reading assignment for this class:
Costa, N., Patrício, L., & Morelli, N. (2018, June). A designerly-way of conducting qualitative research in design studies. In ServDes2018: Service Design Proof of Concept (p. 164). Linköping University Electronic Press.https://vbn.aau.dk/ws/portalfiles/portal/307052443/13.pdf
Pontis, S. (2018). Chapter 7: Making sense of field data. Making sense of field research: a practical guide for information designers. Routledge. p. 129-168
Lecture:
Week 11 – 11/05/2024 – Artificial Intelligence (AI) in qualitative data analysis
How to use Whisper and chatGPT for qualitative data analysis. Visual diaries are handed in for evaluation.
Reading assignment for this class:
Morgan, D. L. (2023). Exploring the use of artificial intelligence for qualitative data analysis: The case of ChatGPT. International journal of qualitative methods, 22. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069231211248
Lecture:
Week 12 – 11/12/2024 – Peer review in design research
Delivery of the research paper draft. What is peer review. How to write a good review. Conferences, journals, committees, and other venues. Peer review process starts. Researchers submit their papers. Visual diaries are returned.
Reading assignment for this class:
Jessica Barness, Dan Wong, Aaris Sherin, Robin Landa, Alex Girard (2020). Basics of Peer Review for Communication Design Scholarship. Design Incubation. https://designincubation.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Design-Incubation-White-Paper-Peer-Review.pdf
Aaris Sherin, Jessica Barness, and Robin Landa (2020). Advice to Authors Navigating Peer Review. Design Incubation.https://designincubation.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/White-Paper-Peer-Review-Advice-Final.pdf
Week 13 – 11/19/2024 – Book festival
Each student presents a contextual book reading and a codesign project interpretation based on the book’s concepts. Researchers revise their peer’s papers.
Week 14 – 11/26/2024 – Holiday
Week 15 – 12/03/2024 – Last day of class – Evaluation and reflection
Peer review ends. Reflection and evaluation of the learning journey. Strategic planning of future publications. Updating the Rumsfeld/Zizek Matrix.