The door, the wind, the bird and the valise

The door, the wind, the bird and the valise
By Jason Hobbs
Affiliated Researcher at the University of Johannesburg’s Research Centre Visual Identities in Art and Design

Acknowledgments:
This presentation is an adaptation of the paper “Maturing A Practice” by Jason Hobbs, Terence Fenn and Andrea Resmini currently under peer-review by the Journal of Information Architecture.
The idea for the paper began at a break away session at the 2009 Euro IA Summit (with Hobbs, Resmini and Eric Reis) for the colloquium On Making: Integrating Approaches to Practice-Led Research in Art and Design at the University of Johannesburg under the auspices of the Research Centre.

For the purposes of this presentation, user experience design is an umbrella term for a variety of practices (including but not limited to information architecture, interaction design, information design, interface design), applied user-centered research methods and an iterative design process involving users, collectively employed in the design of digital artefacts, products and services.

Discipline
& Practice

Discipline
Role
Practice

A doctor, lawyer or
architect
Discipline
Role
Practice

Medicine
A doctor
Healing

Researcher
Discipline
Practice
Role

Theoretical Research (research for knowledge)
- Usually in the realm of academia
- Infrequently practiced in agencies and commercial spaces
- With validated knowledge as the end product
- Usually in the public domain

Practitioner
Discipline
Role
Practice

Applied research (research for design)
- Usually in the realm of practice
- Performed in agencies and commercial spaces
- With a designed artefact in mind as the end product
- Usually ‘hidden’ in private domains

Interestingly, the same research techniques can and are often applied.
Discipline
Role
Practice

A practice offers an ordered arrangement of activities and action without emphasising theoretical concerns.
Activities and actions are driven by know-how.
Practice emphasises the production of effective artefacts.

A practice offers an ordered arrangement of activities and action without emphasising theoretical concerns.
Activities and actions are driven by know-how.
Practice emphasises the production of effective artefacts.
A Discipline contains practice, discourses, predispositions and institutional facts
Activities and actions are driven by scientific method and a current body of knowledge
Discipline emphasises the production of new knowledge

A discipline provides a framework for and results in a system of orderly behavior. A discipline includes
A community of scholars;
A body of accepted and codified knowledge;
A mode of inquiry that produces new knowledge,
A validation process for new knowledge entering the discipline;
The existence of methods of communication

Where are we?

In Pisa.
At a community gathering.
As part of a community of practice.

Our community of practice is comprised of know-how, discussions, definitions and opinions expressed largely via organic Internet-based mediums such as email lists, personal blogs and personal or company websites, a handful of how-to books and public conferences.

Without knowledge, our practice is led by opinion.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/boltron/4329185089/in/pool-explainia/

Discipline
Role
Practice

However, UX is making a huge impact on projects and organizations internationally.
The field is growing because of its particular relevance to digital product design (and the radical impact of the growth of the World Wide Web and mobile).
The field is also growing because the practice of UX offers results that improve the effectiveness of products and experiences.
UX makes companies money.

The user-centered focus of UX, its multi-disciplinary nature and specific techniques and methods applied find it in application in multi-channel projects (for Service Design) and in use by Design Thinking.
By any other name, the reach of this practice is increasing at an exponential rate.

What’s the problem?

Good food.
Good drinks.
Good company.
Good conversation.
Good content.

When we leave this conference we remain
lone-wolves.
And this condition is more than a social one.

When required to justify our role within a company or to clients there is no larger body of (validated, accepted, scientific) knowledge to appeal to.

And where can I learn UX?
Where is the accreditation?
Where is the consensus?
Where is the validation?
Where is the credibility?
Where is the critical debate?
Where is the codification of knowledge?
Where is the progression of knowledge?
Where is the support?
Where are the thought leaders for knowledge?
Where does business find verification?
Where are the ethics?
Where are the standards?

The personal development of the designer, one’s personal growth path or journey, is also affected by the lack of Discipline.

The personal development of the designer, one’s personal growth path or journey, is also affected by the lack of Discipline.
How do I judge my own work?
Beyond answering a client brief, how have I taken my own understandings and practice forward?
Is my work good or bad?
What is my next step as a designer (not just as an employee or provider of services)?

The broader threat

UX is multi-disciplinary. We’ve been surviving off this inheritance.
}
Library science
Knowledge management
Information science
Visual design (graphic design / fine arts)
Information design
Human-computer interaction
Industrial design
Way finding / town planning
Ergonomics / human factors
Marketing
Branding
Business & economics
Art history Psychology
Anthropology
Ethnography
Statistics
User experience design

And an abundance of knowhow.
But very little knowledge.

We’ve also been surviving because user experience design really does solve business problems.

An emerging consciousness

"Does IA push any bounds beyond client concerns? Is there any artful or conceptual pursuit in the discipline that's not based on solving the immediate problem?

In the closing plenary of the 2009 IA Summit in Memphis, Tennessee, Jesse James Garrett called for the need for a ‘language of critique’

Klyn’s retort

Saffer: http://www.kickerstudio.com/blog/2008/12/the-disciplines-of-user-experience/

IA Summit Consortium on Research & Practice
(2009 / 2010)
IA Summit consortium on research and practice (REG-iA, Research & Education Group in Information Architecture)
The discussion will cover:
Is IA a field, a discipline, a craft, etc?
Maturing IA as a practice-led field and the role of research.
Methodologies and theoretical frameworks in research and practice

There are no less than 3 talks at this years IA Summit in Phoenix addressing these issues.
The Practice of Information Architecture: It takes a village of practitioners to raise a discipline (Nathaniel Davis)
The Commoditization & Fragmentation of the Information Architecture Community (Nick Finck)
Bridging IA Research and Practice (Instone & Resmini)

The benefits of a discipline

Know-how can be validated and
absorbed

Know-how can be validated and absorbed
Established facts and practices can be
collected and stored

Established facts and practices can be collected and stored
Knowledge can be accessible and
widespread

Knowledge can be accessible and widespread
Opinion can be accepted as insightful and
valuable or debunked

Opinion can be accepted as insightful and valuable or
debunked
Practice can be explained against
established rules and conventions

debunked
Practice can be explained against established rules and
conventions
The values in our practice can become
measurable

debunked
Practice can be explained against established rules and
conventions
The values in our practice can become measurable
Levels of expertise can be established for
skills and qualifications

The door, the wind, the bird and the valise

Research codifies what practice generates.

Research codifies what practice generates.
Practice generates artefacts.

We need to start looking more closely at what our artefactsmean.

We need to start looking more closely at what our artefactsmean.
This is achieved through research.

Practice-led research

In ‘Practice-led Research’ the artefact has a central position in the academic research process

Discipline
Role
Practice

Discipline
Role
Practice
ARTEFACT

Practice-led research is a ‘self-reflexive’ form of research.
The designer provides a rigorous critical analysis of their work, positioning it within broader research paradigms.
Articulation of the processes involved in making the product of research form an important part of the research findings.
Articulation and dissemination of the research findings takes place both through the product of making and established academic means; these are seen as dialogical and interrelated.

Practice-led research could help us to analyse our artefacts to identify and unearth knowledge and begin to reconstitute them under a new disciplinary framework.
PLR is an academic method that can help us look at our work differently, as the producers of these artefacts.
It can help us to find meaning.

PLR could help us to create the shift from know-how to knowledge.

What does this mean for us?

We are attempting to describe a practicing designer that is concerned with the underlying theoretical foundations of their work in addition to the work itself.
This is nothing new. For centuries artists have been interested in this.

It is not uncommon in many fields for practitioners to:
Document their work for theoretical purposes
Test theory in practice
Develop theory through practice
To function within and without of academic institutions (teach and or research)
To participate in discourses
We find this in fine art, architecture, law, medicine…

Given how busy we are, this may seem like a tall order, and not all designers are interested in academic research.
But some are.

And we’re half way there already.

There is overlap in the UX and practice-led research methods

“The designer provides a rigorous critical analysis
of their work, positioning it within broader research
Paradigms”
We already do research

“Articulation of the processes involved in making the
product of research forms an important part of the
research findings”
We have a method of design

“Articulation and dissemination of the research findings
takes place both through the product of making and
established academic means; these are seen as
dialogical and interrelated”
We produce artefacts

IDEO Method Cards

There is an opportunity to identify, explore and make explicit the context in which the immediate ‘framed problem’ exists. This could be methodological, historical, cultural, economic, geographic, ethical, etc.
Our research, by its very nature, bleeds into this broader context but our current practice places no emphasis on these relationships.
A wealth of potential knowledge could be unearthed, documented and made visible.

Visualvocab-ucd-process:http://scmdev/ue

Self reflective documenting of process tends not to extend beyond a project post mortem or case study (if they are created at all).
And these kinds of documents do not form part of the ‘act of making’ but rather are bolted onto the end of a project.
The space of documenting-while-designing, recording learning’s, feelings, meanings, decisions, measuring effectiveness and documenting contextual factors while on a project could provide a wealth of knowledge for the practicing community and could provide greater validation of the methods, tools and techniques of the field.

Artifacts become the locus of the research: we share research-for-design (which is different to sharing research-for-business).
Given the broadening of the research context at the start of our process, the breadth of the output expands too. This makes it easier to avoid issues of intellectual property and confidentiality.

How far will this get us?

A broad uptake of PLR will assist us in the production of knowledge.
But this is not all that is required for the creation of a discipline.

We’ll also need to create a framework for:
The identification of drivers for the production of new knowledge (including financial)
A community of scholars to communicate and collaborate
Methods of communication (scholar to scholar; scholar to practitioner; practitioner to scholar)
Agreed methods and terms for the codification of knowledge
Agreed modes of enquiry and validation for the production and acceptance of knowledge
Validation of knowledge available as inheritance from related disciplines (e.g. psychology, anthropology, etc)
Identification of current and required discourses
A 'home' for institutional facts and the current body of knowledge and discourse

Wrap up

In summary, could practice-led research help us to:

Create scientifically driven, research-based knowledge
Provide practitioners with an approach to academic research
Facilitate a supply and demand for a structure to emerge, progressing us from practice-led to discipline-led

And could this effort help us to grow and broaden in our personal development as designers through our own creation of knowledge?

Practice informing knowledge which informs practice.

Thanks
jason@humanexperiencedesign.net

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The door, the wind, the bird and the valise

by Jason Hobbs

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