Design with data: Practising exploratory inquiring on data visualisation

Abstract

Intending to implement a data-enabled design approach to use this data in their creative design process, Ford established a research collaboration with the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at the Delft University of Technology. As part of the collaboration, several lines of research were carried out, like data strategy, data visualisation, and early prototyping in the form of graduation projects. In one such work, Mellado Cruz (2021) identified that exploratory inquiring as a means to derive insights from data visualisations has great potential in supporting the creative design process. With her empirical studies, she could generate theoretical knowledge about this process; however, bridging work was needed to convert this knowledge into a practical and actionable outcome.
In this project, I address the research question, "How can exploratory inquiring on data visualisation be operationalised in the Ford design team to support their creative design process? ". I begin the process with a phase of immersion into theory and context- using published literature about exploratory data analysis,
data visualisation, creativity, and design theory to obtain theoretical understanding and the thesis reports of past graduation projects. At the end of this phase, I identify three potential opportunities that can aid in implementing exploratory inquiring in Ford design teams. One of the opportunities- to conceptualise exploratory inquiring as a collaborative design method- was identified as the most feasible in terms of the scope of the project, practical and desirable for the Ford design teams. A preliminary concept method was developed based on the learnings from the literature in line with this direction. This was iteratively prototyped, tested and refined for three cycles in the design iterations phase. The version at the end of the third cycle was used to create the final deliverable- a toolkit consisting of an information booklet that helps in circulating the procedural knowledge of the method within the team to create awareness and canvasses that support the execution of the method. In the last parts of this report, I provide recommendations for future studies to tackle the limitations I faced in this project and possibly inspire new works in the area of data-enabled design.