human studies in architecture

1. Faculty of Engineering and Technology
Department of Architectural Engineering
ARC 323 : Human Studies in
Architecture
Fall 2018
Dr. Yasser Mahgoub
Lecture 4 - Research Design

2. Research Design

3. Research Strategies
• Research Approaches
– Diagnostic
– Descriptive
– Theoretical
– Action
• Research Designs
– Case study
– Survey
– Experiment
• Research Settings
– Natural
– Contrived

4. Research Strategies
Approaches
SettingsDesigns
Diagnostic
Descriptive
Theoretical
Action
Case study
Survey
Experiment
Natural
Contrived

5. Research Approaches
Diagnostic Studies
• Diagnostic studies help you deepen your
understanding of a setting: they provide suggestive
evidence on a broad realm. They offer insight into the
structure and dynamics of a whole situation. For
trustworthiness of findings, diagnostic studies rely on
the consistency, clarity, and coherence of the insights
they develop in the situation being studied.
Researchers who want more precise measurements
of particular attributes of a group or situation may
carry out a descriptive study based on conceptual
frameworks developed in diagnostic ones.
• Example: The Urban Villagers

6. Research Approaches
Descriptive Studies
• Descriptive studies describe and measure as precisely as
possible one or more characteristics and their relations in a
defined group. Developing clear concepts and translating these
into something that can be counted as a manifestation of the
concept are particularly crucial problems in descriptive research.
• Example: Study of Fear Among Residents of the Pruitt-Igoe
Housing Project in St. Louis

7. Research Approaches
Theoretical Studies
• Theoretical studies set
specific hypotheses
suggested by experiences
elsewhere or primarily
derived from more
comprehensive theory. Such
studies tend to increase
general insights and to focus
more on the conceptual
framework of a problem than
on the precise nature of the
group they are observing.
• Example: Social Pressures in
Informal groups

8. Research Approaches
Action research Studies
• In action research studies changes are made and analyzed
that have direct and lasting consequences on people beyond
those in the research project. Comparative action research
settings may occur naturally or may be created analytically
by careful sampling.
• Example: Twin Rivers New Town

9. Research Design
Case Study
• Researchers use a case study design
when they want to develop intensive
knowledge about one complex object.
• They are used to describe and diagnose
single, internally complex objects:
individuals, buildings, episodes,
institutions, processes, societies.
• A case study is appropriate when
investigators are interested mainly in
information specific to the particular
study object and context, rather than
information easily generalizable to a
large population.

10. Research Design
Survey
• A survey design is useful when
investigators want to find out in detail
about a phenomenon, such as housing
satisfaction, or about a class of elements.
• Survey researchers who study large
populations often choose to gather data
that are easy to quantify and therefore
less time-consuming to analyze than
qualitative data.
• For this reason frequent research methods
used in surveys are email questionnaires,
observing physical traces, observing
behavior, and interviews.

11. Research Design
Experimental
• An experimental design is appropriate
when investigators want to measure the
effects that an action has in a particular
situation. In an experiment you want to
be able to focus observation on a small
number of attributes at one time. To do
so, you need control, so that you can be
as sure as possible that the effects you
observe result from experimental
changes.
– Control group and Experiment group
– Before and After the action

12. Research Design
Parametric Study
• Parametric research consists
of the systematic
manipulation of one variable
(Independent), and making
measurements on another
variable (Dependent) though
to be directly influenced by
the independent variable,
while keeping all other
conditions constant by means
of control variable

13. Research Design
Multivariant Study
• In many situations, identifying one or
even a restricted set of variables is
difficult - especially in the case of
behavioral studies of building
environments where many physical and
personal factors are present.

14. Research Settings
Natural Settings
• Natural settings offer researchers the
unique opportunity to observe people in
settings they choose to come to, engaged
in activities a contrived setting could not re-
create. Natural settings are particularly
appropriate for diagnostic studies in which
investigators want to find out what is
actually going on - what elements,
relationships, and dynamics are salient.
• In natural settings you can also carry out an
experiment, by manipulating a part of a
physical environment, a particular social
behavior, or a policy.

15. Research Settings
Contrived Settings
• Contrived settings are planned and controlled research
environments in which to observe people and gather data from
them. One such setting is the experimental laboratory, in which
investigators control the setting, choose participants randomly,
effect controlled changes, and measure some attribute of the
subjects after those changes.

16. Research Evaluation
Validity
• The validity of a measurement is
concerned with whether the property
being measured is what should be
measured - i.e., are we measuring the
right thing?

17. Research Evaluation
Reliability
• Reliability refers to
whether other
researchers
performing similar
studies obtain
equivalent results.

18. End