Research for Designers: A Guide to Methods and Practice

by Gjoko Muratovski

Today, designers design services, processes and organizations; craft skills no longer suffice. We need to discover, define and solve problems based upon evidence. We need to demonstrate the validity of our claims. We need a guide to design research that can educate students and be a reference for professionals. And here it a masterful book for 21st century designers.

― Don Norman ,  Professor and Director of Design Lab, University of California San Diego, and former Vice President, Advanced Technologies, Apple

Design is it influences how we live, what we wear, how we communicate, what we buy, and how we behave. In order for designers to design for the real world, defining strategies rather than just implementing them, they need to learn how to understand and solve complex, intricate, and often unexpected problems. This book is a guide to this new creative process. With this book in hand, students of design
Research for Designers  is an essential toolkit for a design education and a must-have for every design student who is getting ready to tackle their own research.

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, Research, Art Design, Reference, Education

280 pages, Hardcover

First published February 8, 2016

Reviews

[Joel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can hardly argue against the importance of the book. I do think that the knowledge of how to conduct rigorous research is highly relevant for design and definitely needs to be better embedded in university level design education. But I was disappointed in the book. It does a good job at presenting basic research methods, but there is very little critical discussion and too much space is given to specialised practical examples, when understanding how to implement the methods in day-to-day work feels more important. Very good for bachelor level students. Not as useful for professionals or master level students. They need to go further than this. Decent, but far from great.

[Sofia · Rating 2 out of 5]

UPG6 tog livet av mig. Men boken va intressant.

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book targets design students as well as professional designers who want to incorporate research into their design process. Although aimed specifically at designers, the book can also serve as a practical introduction to basic research methodologies for any member of a design team, including developers, technical writers, and management.

Muratovski argues that design has traditionally been seen as an artistic practice rather than a practical research-based approach to problems; in today’s market, however, design is increasingly interdisciplinary and designers must learn new skills to compete, and research is a key component of that.

The book is well organized and broken down into manageable sections and subsections that make it easy to find specific information; numbered lists, bullet points, illustrations, and real-world examples make the methodologies easily digestible. A brief summary follows each chapter. As an introductory textbook, Muratovski covers a wide breadth of research types; because of this, it sometimes lacks depth and specificity in certain areas.

Muratovski’s chapters on research methodologies offered numbered steps that outline the process from formulating the topic to presenting findings. Although not in-depth enough to provide a comprehensive plan for large-scale or academic research, this bare-bones approach is sufficient for small-scale commercial or educational projects.

[Mafalda ~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

it is what it is

[Adriana · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book filled all the gaps of knowledge about design research that I had while studying. Maybe it's my personal opinion but in Latin American education there's a huge lack of understanding of how to apply research for design or without making it very complex.
I think books like this should be mandatory in design syllabus for the last semesters, rather than only social-focused research books.