The role of prototypes and frameworks for structuring explorations by research through design

Abstract

This chapter focuses on explorative research using research through design, because in these we have seen the strength of doing design as a part of doing research. It looks at one guided by a research prototype. The chapter outlines how both prototypes and frameworks can help guide explorative research: prototypes through giving a physical instantiation of a phenomenon, frameworks by placing a phenomenon in a conceptual perspective. The series of prototypes anchored the focus of the research, and determined the scope. The research progressed through a number of stages: after exploration, the prototype was developed and during its development it was continuously tested with members of the ID-StudioLab research community as test subjects and critical participants. The role that design skills, and design actions, can have in research has received growing attention. Prototypes force the researcher to confront theory, confront the world, they evoke discussion and reflection, change the world, and can be used to test a theory