Asking the right questions: developing students' research skills and ethical conduct through design studio projects
Date
2010
Authors
Kelly, V.
Editors
Forsyth, G.
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Type:
Conference paper
Citation
Proceedings of ConnectED 2010 2nd International Conference on Design Education, 2010 / Forsyth, G. (ed./s), pp.1-5
Statement of Responsibility
Conference Name
ConnectED 2010 2nd International Conference on Design Education (28 Jun 2010 : Sydney, Australia)
Abstract
This paper discusses an undergraduate design studio project focused on developing practical research skills and ethical conduct in final year visual communication students at the University of South Australia. Visual communication students at the University are familiar with the practice of writing essays and project rationales. They are used to analysing and responding to curriculum project briefs and client initiated design problems. However there appears to be a gap in their capacity to identify and define a problem and explore this problem using appropriate research methods. The new studio project seeks to bridge this gap by inviting final year students to consider visual communication as an everyday practice; to identify an indeterminate or neglected problem (or gap) in the wider community, and to plan and use research methods to design an appropriate intervention or improvement. Ethical considerations are introduced so that students engage with a range of people in a respectful and confidential manner in the process. The project applies action research in the design studio integrated with the idea of the ‘research funnel’ and informed by Papanek’s (1985:307) schematic of evolving cyclic design events. The project was run over two semesters and comprised three outcomes: 1) a written proposal framing the problem, context, research methods and design goals, 2) data collection, analysis and design development and 3) a project report. Student evaluations of the project were very positive. Students felt that the focus on ethics and research skills heightened their responsiveness to the needs of their community of interest. This in turn led to better design outcomes as students had a heightened understanding of the relationship between research and design studio practice