The Nature of the Knowledge Constructed through Collaborative Designing – A Case Study Petra Falin

University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland

The author is a postgraduate student in the Faculty of Art and Design, Department of Textile and Clothing Design, in the University of Lapland. She has recently started working on her doctoral thesis on the knowledge in the design activity. Lately she has also been working as a junior research assistant for the research projects of the department. The paper relates to one of the faculty’s research projects called CoDes. Currently the author is working as a researcher in the Emergence of Luxury – research project which is funded by the Academy of Finland through the Industrial Design research programme. Email: [email protected]

The study presented at the paper addresses the activity of designing. The salient focus is on the nature of the knowledge constructed through designing. The study can be located into the research on designing and the philosophy of design. The view of the design discipline as a field of research in the paper represents the conception of design as the subject of scientific research. The primary view of the paper is on the description and conceptualization of the knowledge constructed through a collaborative design case. The nature of the knowledge is analysed through the philosophical and contextual aspects. The data for the case in focus here was collected through audio and video recordings of a concept design process. Additional research material also included questionnaires and visual material produced by the designers during the design process. The themes highlighted and analysed from the empirical data produced eventually a preliminary depiction of the types of knowledge constructed through the activity of designing. The view has been limited to the elements appearing from the theoretical background and from the recordings of the communication and actions of the design team. The contents of the individual minds are left unexamined. The study relates to the ongoing CoDes – Facilitating Social Creativity through Collaborative Designing – research project in the Department of Textile and Clothing Design, in the Faculty of Art and Design, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland. The CoDes research project is funded by the Academy of Finland through the Life as Learning research programme. Keywords: design research, constructing knowledge, collaborative designing, audiovisual data, qualitative analysis 1

Introduction

Mapping the field Some of the biggest challenges in developing design education seem to be utilisation of the research knowledge on one hand, and on the other, making the information from research public and available to a wider audience. Information derived from project related research in professional practice seems to be proprietary and does not often reach the audience outside the client-provider relationship. Unfortunately most of the academic design research suffers from the same symptoms. (Roth 1999, 18) A way of sharing the research knowledge among students of design education is found in projectoriented work in research projects in design. In our department the multiple on-going research projects have created unique opportunities for learning through designing and at the same time bridging the gap between research and education of the design students as well as the ostensible gap between design and research in many ways. Research projects concentrating on the collection and utilisation of the user knowledge create opportunities for student design projects and direct utilisation of the research knowledge. At the same time the students’ design projects create circumstances for studying authentic design processes from different perspectives.

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The paper presents a study of the knowledge constructed through designing in a concept design process included in a research project of our department. The background knowledge for the design process was collected and analyzed by the research project. The design team utilised the analyzed data of the users and the context in order to create a concept of intelligent work clothing. The design process provided an opportunity to study an authentic design process of a team of four designers. This paper concentrates on exploring the nature of the knowledge constructed through the design process. My role in the case has been both as a designer and a researcher. I have been one of the members of the design team while also collecting research data of the design process. This twofold status has proven to be productive from the point of view of my study of design. The framework enabled personal insights into the process, which would not have been possible as an outsider. The study presented in this paper relates to a research project called Facilitating Social Creativity through Collaborative Designing [CoDes]. The CoDes research project analyzes the challenges of learning through designing in various design contexts. A special focus of the CoDes project is to address the challenges of collaborative and participatory designing in education and workplace contexts and examine the new possibilities provided by virtual design studios to cross boundaries between educational institutions, between education and enterprises, and facilitate horizontal learning of designers in multi-professional teams. The results of the CoDes research project will be utilized for developing pedagogical models for virtual design studios and collaborative designing and teaching. The project produces more detailed knowledge about the design process and the role and development of visual representations in collaborative design processes. The project aims at developing more sophisticated practices of collaborative designing and helps to cross boundaries between environments of formal design education and working-life. A short description of the case The example of a design process in this study is a concept design process of intelligent work clothing. The design process represented collaborative designing. The team of designers consisted of four undergraduate design students in the final stage of their studies for master’s degree. All of the group members also had experience in actual assignments in different fields of design. The team included two students of clothing design and two students of industrial design. The team was also regularly in contact with consultants of physiology, material technology and electronics from collaborating universities. A few representatives of the target group also participated in the three-month long process. All the communication between the designers, consultants and the target group representatives was conducted through the Internet in a virtual learning environment. The design team had their meetings face to face in our department. The key data of my study was collected in these meetings with audio and video recordings. Additional research material also included questionnaires and visual material produced by the designers during the design process. The solitary working of the designers outside the meetings was not recorded into the data of the study. Consequently my study concentrated on the communication and actions of the design team and the contents of the individual minds were left unexamined. The design process was divided into three phases over a three month long period in the spring 2004. After the first two phases the design team presented some of their ideas and sketches to the target group representatives through the network environment. The target group participators commented and discussed the material giving feedback to the design team. The final concept was developed during the last phase of the process. The final results of the process were not aimed directly at industrial productization but at researching the usability and the acceptability of the concept before further development. The team took the assignment as an authentic design task even though the commercial utilisation and development was not guaranteed in the

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time of the design process. From the point of view of industrial product development the process differs most in the part of the publicly available outcome after the research on the concept will be concluded. The background and the aims of the study The term design covers a broad field of activities from the systematic processes of engineering to the artistic processes of industrial arts. There are elements of design that are common to all or most of the fields of design but still we cannot assume that the term would denote equal meanings to all designers (Franz 2000, 70). Lawson has described designing as a prescriptive rather than descriptive job. “Unlike scientists who describe how the world is, designers suggest how it might be” (Lawson 2001, 113). Lawson emblematically states that even though he cannot offer a satisfactory definition of design he has no difficulty in recognising it when encountering it (Lawson 2001, 305). The underlying axiom of the study was the conception that there are forms of knowledge and ways of knowing special to the designer (Cross 2000, 97). The study began from the will to discern the speciality of this knowledge. In the study these “designerly ways of knowing” (Cross 1982) were taken as a subject of scientific research. The preliminary questions were particularly interested in the content and the philosophical aspects of this knowledge. One of the first issues was also the methodological approach that could be applied in research related to the activity of designing. The salient focus of the study has been outlining the nature of the knowledge constructed through designing, by description and conceptualisation. The study has been an attempt to primarily analyze the key elements defining the essence and the content of the knowledge. The empirical approach was founded on the constructivist view of knowing as an active event.

2

Methodological approach

Methods of data collection According to Cross, design knowledge has three sources: people, processes and products (Cross 1999, 5). This study combines people and processes as the sources of data. The examination viewpoint of the products was irrelevant in the context in question because the case exemplified the early stage of the product design process where the results can be best described as a product concept rather than the product itself. The data-driven study applied various methods of data collection and analysing. Even though the methods cannot be directly labelled with any existing terminology, all the methods applied here can be best described as qualitative research methods. The primary data for the case in focus here was collected through audio and video recordings during a concept design process. The data collection was adapted according to the design meetings. The presented case was recorded from the start to the end as a part of the design team’s collaborative work. The team always met in the same work premises. The audiovisual recordings of the activity were videotaped with a stationary video camera and a stereo microphone. The aim was to produce continuous recordings. The recording was paused only during the breaks in the activity. The recording was always activated by a member of the team when all the participants were present. The camera was set on the widest possible angle in order to capture as much of the activity as possible.

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Table 1 The amount of the audiovisual data sectioned by the phases of the design and analysis processes The phase of the

The amount of

design process:

the audiovisual data:

Th e a m o u n t o f d a t a

1st month

22 h 12 min

4 h 07 min

2nd month

12 h 12 min

1 h 34 min

for the deeper analysis:

3rd month

13 h 15 min

2 h 10 min

Total:

47 h 39 min

7 h 51 min

The data included considerable amount of conversation and exceptionally few hours of mere sketching or other silent activities. Partially this was related to the fact that the visually productive activities naturally took place while working alone and the computer. The common meetings were focused on the collaborative development of the ideas, which necessarily involves verbal communication. Methods of analysis The videotaped records give an insurmountable way of collecting data especially when studying aspects of activity, movement or behaviour. The difficulties with the data emerge usually in the analysis phase. One of the biggest challenges is often the amount of data. Because of the continuous recording the raw data included some unrelated material from the point of view of the study. Therefore the analysis of the data began with reviewing and categorising it roughly in order to mark out the relevant sections of the recordings. The usage of the video material directly in the analysis without verbal transcription is often an unusual decision in research. In the case the decision was grounded on the will to preserve the nature of the data with its multiple non-verbal aspects. The analysis of the video material in the case was based on a relatively common qualitative approach where the data was first reviewed as a whole, then split into minor themes and eventually coded into various main and subcategories. The analysis followed largely the basic model for analysis by Collier & Collier with the exception of the elimination of the statistical analysis of the data (Collier & Collier 1999, 178-179). The statistical analysis was replaced with a qualitative approach based on the qualitative content analysis. In the first phases of the analysis the focus was especially on the type of the activity and on verbal communication. The types of activity and interaction as well as the content of the communication were documented on a specially formulated form for further examination. The data in the phases of the deeper analysis consisted especially of situations where the team reflected their working, explicitly referred to knowledge in some way and the situations that could not be easily “labelled” or coded in a simple and descriptive way. The additional research material of questionnaires for the designers and visual material produced by the team during the process were used for revising, questioning and finally supporting the conclusions drawn from the primary data.

3

Results

Knowledge for design and knowledge from designing The analysis of the data produced a central classification between 1) the existing knowledge that was only discussed in the meetings and 2) the knowledge that was constructed through designing. For example, in the particular case the background knowledge of the users was already collected, analyzed and available at the beginning of the design process and could be categorized in this case rather as knowledge for design than knowledge from designing. Nevertheless the knowledge of the users and of the context of use was one of the most mentioned topics in the communication of the designers. The important background knowledge was referred often in the conversation of the

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designers and it was obvious that it was utilised in designing in many ways. The analysis of the content of the knowledge constructed through designing generated the conception that the background knowledge was often used as a basis to build new knowledge on. The commonly shared view on the background knowledge was that it guided the course of the process but could not be given a dominant role in the development of the resolutions of the concept. This view was grounded on the designers’ experience that the users seem to search solutions for existing needs and problems but the designers should be able to also picture the situation in the future. What sort of knowledge was constructed through designing? The contentual aspects of the knowledge constructed through designing in the particular case were very context specific and somewhat impending. The significant grounds for classification of the knowledge seemed to arise from the analysis of the epistemological examination of the data. Although the analysis started with the focus on the verbal expression it soon became evident that the knowledge constructed through designing cannot always be verbally conveyed. The concept of tacit knowledge paved the way for the examination of the ways of knowing that are not explicitly mentioned in the communication of the team in the data. The conception of the existence of a certain kind of a tacit knowledge is often elicited in the fields of art and design without further analyzing the expression. One of the origins of the concept is in the philosophy of Michael Polanyi. Polanyi used the concept of tacit knowledge to describe a type of knowledge that is attained without words and explications. According to Polanyi the tacit knowledge is the foundation for all kinds of knowing. Knowledge can be referred as tacit when one knows something without being able to tell how. (Polanyi 1983) In the fields of arts, craft and design the concept is often understood as a form of non-verbal knowledge, which relates directly to the knowhow of the artist or the designer. (Koskennurmi-Sivonen 1998) The tacit aspect of knowledge is a problematic subject of study because of the very nature. The verbal approaching of the subject leaves a part of it inevitably unattained. The non-verbal cannot comprehensively be described in words. However, the tacit knowledge is not necessarily impossible to articulate in words. The knowledge may remain tacit for the simple reason of the lack of motive to express it verbally. Koskennurmi-Sivonen has pointed out that the verbalisation of the tacit knowledge need not to be expected always from the designer himself. The task of verbalisation may be that of the researcher of the subject. (Koskennurmi-Sivonen 1997, 221.) In the data the tacit knowledge was often explicitly expressed later, but the origins of the verbal expression could be traced into silent activities in the deeper analysis. Often the verbalisation process was collaborative even though the nature of the tacit knowledge in the data could be best described as personal, subjective and intuitive. The opposite of the tacit knowledge is called explicit knowledge here. In its best it was very found to be analytic and conceptual and always verbal. This is the kind of knowledge that best matches the traditional definition of knowledge. The definition between verbal and tacit knowledge was not the only aspect specifying the nature of the knowledge in the data. The second axis dividing the knowledge pertains to the nature of the knowledge in relation to its factuality. The nature of the knowledge could be divided with a line between the factual knowledge and the imaginary knowledge. The factual knowledge based on reality, facts and information related in the data especially to the decision making and problem solving activities. This type of knowledge appeared very specific, precise, definite and even exclusionary. The imaginary knowledge targeting to the future was expressed particularly in the visualising of the possibilities and alternatives. Both of these counterpoints could be recognised both in non-verbal and verbally expressed dimension.

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Figure 1: The key axes

Explicit, verbal knowledge analytic and conceptual

conceptualizing the nature of the knowledge constructed

CONSCIOUS

through designing

Factual knowledge specific, definite

Imaginary knowledge suggestive, conceivable

SUBCONSCIOUS Tacit knowledge intuitive, subjective, personal

4

Discussion

The study was an experimental attempt which aimed at both testing the methodological approach with the audiovisual data and mapping the subject matter initially for further examination with supplemental data. The conceptualisation of the subject is not intended to be final and extensive. The concept design refers to various fields of activities that cannot be considered as an inseparable whole. The activity of designing referred in this particular case represents specifically the fields of industrial and clothing design. Even if the case represents a mode of operation that could be familiar within different fields of design, it must be taken for consideration that different domains of design may approach the activity and also the knowledge related to it from different perspectives. The origins of the knowledge cannot be separated from the surroundings, circumstances, people, time and place that contribute to the construction of the knowledge. The difficulties in research on designing are well condensed in Lawson’s statement that even after some thirty years of working on design research he knows much more from practising the process, rather than studying it (Lawson 2001, 308). I would like to add that the special troubles in the research on designing result from the seamless combination of verbal and non-verbal expression in designing. The knowledge constructed through designing is not always directly related to designing. But as a designer I do not see a way of naming the domains of knowledge that could not be relevant in the process of designing.

5

Conclusions

The viewpoint of the study represents designing as constant working with knowledge in different dimensions. The study of the interaction among the designers revealed a continuous process of sharing, receiving and constructing knowledge. Despite that the process was organised in different ways, the ideas and insights were unexpected, unpredictable and even surprising. The knowledge constructed through designing is fragmentary and does not answer to any particular questions as a whole. The knowledge produced through designing should not be paralleled with scientific inquiry for instance. Instead, it is apparent that designing as an activity is a way of producing various kinds of learning. The designer’s knowledge and the ways of constructing it are of special interest for the purposes of understanding the learning process relating to design and developing design education. The study

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has given a narrow view of the subject through a single case. Due to the framework of the study the results are only suggestive and strictly contextual. Still the case points out various interesting lines for future studies. Finally, while examining the subject from the point of view of the knowledge, it must be remembered that the activity of designing also reaches past the limits of knowing in many ways.

References Collier, J. Jr and Collier, M. Visual Anthropology: Photography as a Research Method. Albuquerque, US: University of New Mexico Press, 1999, 6 th edition. Cross, N. “Design as a Discipline.” Doctoral Education in Design: Foundations for the Future. Edited by David Durling and Ken Friedman, UK: Staffordshire University Press, 2000, pp. 93-100. Cross, N. “Design Research: A Disciplined Conversation.” Design Issues. Volume 15, Number 2, Summer 1999, pp. 5-10. Cross, N. “Designerly Ways of Knowing.” Design Studies. Volume 3, Issue 4, October 1982, pp. 221-227. Franz, J. “An Interpretive-contextual Framework for Research in and Through Design.” Doctoral Education in Design: Foundations for the Future.” Edited by David Durling & Ken Friedman, UK: Staffordshire University Press, 2000, pp. 65-71. Koskennurmi-Sivonen, R. Creating a Unique Dress: A Study of Riitta Immonen’s Creations in the Finnish Fashion House Tradition. Helsinki: Akatiimi, 1998. Koskennurmi-Sivonen, R. “To Speak of the Unspoken: Tacit Knowledge and Participation in Its Interpretation.” Produkt, Fenomen, Upplevelse. Proceedings of a Nordic Symposium. Helsinki: November 7-9.1996, Edited by Pirita SeitamaaHakkarainen and Minna Uotila, Nordic Forum for Research and Development in Craft and Design, Helsinki, Finland, 1997. Krippendorff, K. “Propositions of Human-centeredness: A Philosophy for Design.” Doctoral Education in Design: Foundations for the Future. Edited by David Durling & Ken Friedman, UK: Staffordshire University Press, 2000, pp. 55-63. Lawson, B. How Designers Think: The Design Process Demystified. A completely revised third edition, Oxford: Architectural Press, 2001. Polanyi, M. The Tacit Dimension. (1966), Gloucester, US: Peter Smith, 1983. Roth, S. “The State of Design Research.” Design Issues. Volume 15, Number 2, Summer 1999, pp. 18–26.

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