Inquiry by Design: Tools for Environment-Behaviour Research

by John Zeisel

A lively, non-technical explanation of how, to integrate research and design and how to carry out research on people and groups that is useful to designers. The book explains how to tailor sociological, psychological, and anthropological methods for the study of environment behaviour issues such as how to prevent tourists from getting lost in a city or how to build low income housing projects that will not be vandalised. Social scientists, designers, architects, and planners will appreciate this practical account of how and when, in programming, design reviews, and evaluation, to undertake environment behaviour research.

Genres: Architecture

250 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

Reviews

[Shelby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting case studies for understanding the significance of of implementing neuroscience into the environmental/behavioral design.

[Deb Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t remember how I came to own this book. Intended for environmental designers, it is an illuminating discussion of social science and public space, but it is so much more than that.

The author discusses how the brain processes and tests information as images and metaphors. He suggests how individuals can present ideas to influence conceptual leaps. For example, he writes that whenever you “restructure the way you look at something, you replace complex reality with a simpler version to guide your reactions and actions.” Zeisel states that helping others view a problem is achieved by representation, which he defines as an extreme way of “asserting that ‘solving a problem simply means representing it so as to make the solution transparent.’”

His discussion of change as the movement toward a particular goal out of many possible outcomes is relevant to many modes of individual and social change. The book contains informative chapters on focused interviewing and research design. Although this book is written for those designing public spaces, it's an engaging and valuable resource for anyone who wants to better understand social behavior as it pertains to problem solving.

I especially enjoyed the chapter on Concepts, Hypotheses, Tests in which he discusses approaches to and preconceptions, problems, and solutions. His discussion of empirical information is stimulating; his sections on how to form questions, focus interviews, and probe responses are engaging.

I return to this book whenever I want to think deeply about a subject (personal, social, structural, systemic.) Although I stumbled across it quite accidentally, I consider it a valuable reference book for reminding myself how to consider alternative points of view.