Building Design Knowledge: Creating and Disseminating Design Precedent

building design knowledge
creating and disseminating design precedent
colin m. gray, phd
OCT 09 2014

about me
EDUCATION EXPERIENCE
graydesign

research focus
HCI
DESIGN
ISD

my role at IJDL
Assistant Editor (2012-2014)
Author (Gray et al., 2012)
Reviewer (2011-2014)
Special Issue Co-Editor (2014, Vol. 5, Issue 2)

my plan for tonight
Introduce design as a way of knowing

my plan for tonight
Explore the design case as a specific form of design knowledge

my plan for tonight
Briefly outline the writing and review process for IJDL

my plan for tonight
Briefly outline the writing and review process for IJDL
[+ plenty of time for questions]

DESIGNS FOR LEARNING SPACES
SPECIAL ISSUE | GUEST EDITOR, JILL PABLE | FALL 2013 | VOLUME 4, ISSUE 2

SPECIAL ISSUE ON HISTORIC DESIGN CASES
GUEST EDITORS COLIN M. GRAY & CRAIG D. HOWARD | FALL 2014 | VOLUME 5, ISSUE 2

experience and judgment
What knowledge is required to move from a theory, or a strategy, to a
particular? Where each instantiation is the “ultimate particular”
(Nelson & Stolterman, 2012).

descriptive theories of:
learning
psychology
development
motivation
behavior
prescriptive theories:
explicit
implicit

designer as human
instrument:
technical know-how
process know-how
interpersonal know-how
judgment
experience
learning
psychology
development
motivation
behavior
explicit
implicit

designer as human
instrument:
technical know-how
process know-how
interpersonal know-how
judgment
experience
• appreciation
• pattern recognition &
matching
• discrimination
• selection, extension &
revision of particulars
• invention
learning
psychology
development
motivation
behavior
explicit
implicit

design precedent
In most fields of design, the special form of design knowledge called
precedent is produced at all levels of expertise, and its dissemination is
supported by the entire community in multiple forms.

design precedent
In most fields of design, the special form of design knowledge called
precedent is produced at all levels of expertise, and its dissemination is
supported by the entire community in multiple forms.
medical design
event design
interior design
game design
art direction
engineering design
software design
architecture
trade show design
publication design
lighting design
graphic design
event design

S1
the same end or serving the same purpose and in situ they are
truly unique and an ultimate particular.
Design is a process of moving from the universal, general, and particular
to the ultimate particular—the specific design (see figure 1.2) (a related
• universal
absolute truths
• general
contingent truths
• particular
• full particular
• ultimate particular
increasing level
of complexity
increasing
level of
abstraction
protocols—rules of relationship/interrelationship
and performance specifications
duals—patterns of relationships/interrelationships
and prescriptive specifications
connections, composition
and form
the true
the real
increasing
level of
concreteness
increasing level
of simplicity
Figure 1.2
Universal to ultimate particular
Nelson & Stolterman, 2012, p. 31

what is a design case?
“[a] design case is a description of a real artifact or experience that
has been intentionally designed” (Boling, 2010, p. 2)

AND

AND
how it came to be as it is

AND
❖ Representation of the design: what is the expected/real experience of the design

AND
❖ Context of the design: new design, redesign, presenting problem, redefined problem

AND
❖ Stakeholders/designers: philosophy, bias and/or theoretical stance

AND
❖ Design process: resources, participants, core ideas & influences

AND
❖ Design process: resources, participants, core ideas & influences
❖ Design failures: what went wrong, or opportunities to go another direction

precedent as design knowledge
❖ Precedent is created for other designers, not to build generally-applicable
knowledge or guidelines for researchers.
❖ Precedent may be useful for different reasons to different designers—and
for different reasons, over time, to the same designer.
❖ This kind of knowledge building must be continuously renewed. It does not
build step-by-step toward truths, and is not created in order to provide the
basis for later meta-analysis.
❖ Precedent is not used by designers as explicit guidance from one project to
be applied to another project, but as a contribution to that designer’s store
of patterns, her ability to discern and appreciate the qualities of patterns, and
her acts of innovation both in the near and the long term.

where’s the rigor?
❖ Transparency
❖ Authors’ assessment of what is interesting about the case
❖ Explicit statements regarding critical design decisions and their genesis
❖ Failure and negative case analysis
❖ Adherence to the particular
❖ Limit on claims to generalize from the case
❖ Concrete description/representation of the design
❖ Absence of claims to validate theory/models

down to writing
❖ Producing a well-written design case is more difficult than it looks
❖ Documentation is desirable at multiple stages of the design process (e.g.,
sketches, prototypes).
❖ Making the actors and environment from which the design was produced
clear to an external audience.

down to writing
❖ Producing a well-written design case is more difficult than it looks
❖ Documentation is desirable at multiple stages of the design process (e.g.,
sketches, prototypes).
❖ Making the actors and environment from which the design was produced
clear to an external audience.
❖ Process is important
❖ Unforeseen obstacles to the creation of the design are valuable
components of the design case—not mistakes in “following the process”
to be hidden.
❖ The effectiveness or “success” of the design itself is not the criteria for
the quality of a design case.

reviewing the case
❖ Reviewing a design case is harder than it looks
❖ We provide an infrastructure to bring new reviewers onboard who
understand our unique mission and can provide feedback to authors
❖ Reviewers address the contribution of the case to design knowledge, points
of interest, quality of representation, acknowledgement of design failures,
engaging style, and a full rendering of the complexity of the design process

reviewing the case
❖ Reviewing a design case is harder than it looks
❖ We provide an infrastructure to bring new reviewers onboard who
understand our unique mission and can provide feedback to authors
❖ Reviewers address the contribution of the case to design knowledge, points
of interest, quality of representation, acknowledgement of design failures,
engaging style, and a full rendering of the complexity of the design process
❖ Sequential reviews focused on development
❖ There will be value in this precedent that is not foreseeable, so the review is
about the quality of the representation, not the quality of the project.
❖ We often assist in helping authors locate the “center of interest” for their case
❖ Availability of multimedia elements to tell the design story in a rich and
engaging way

references
Boling, E. (2010). The need for design cases: Disseminating design knowledge. International Journal of
Designs for Learning, 1(1), 1-8.
Howard, C. D. (2011). Writing and rewriting the instructional design case: A view from two sides.
International Journal of Designs for Learning, 2(1), 40-55.
Nelson, H. G., & Stolterman, E. (2012). The design way: Intentional change in an unpredictable world
(2nd ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Smith, K. M. (2010). Producing the rigorous design case. International Journal of Designs for Learning,
1(1), 10-20.

contacts at IJDL
Elizabeth Boling, Editor-in-Chief
eboling@indiana.edu
John Baaki, Incoming Assistant Editor
jwbaaki@gmail.com
Randa Fathy, Editorial Assistant
rhassoun@indiana.edu

contacts at IJDL
Elizabeth Boling, Editor-in-Chief
eboling@indiana.edu
John Baaki, Incoming Assistant Editor
jwbaaki@gmail.com
Randa Fathy, Editorial Assistant
rhassoun@indiana.edu
Colin M. Gray
cmgray@iastate.edu
2624 Howe Hall

Building Design Knowledge: Creating and Disseminating Design Precedent

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