Design Research : Methods and Perspectives

Rating:
Summary: Beware
Review: Beware! This book has an attractive title for design researchers. I expected it to be a manual that might be useful, for example, to PhD students in design. But it is not. It is hugely disappointing. It has usurped the title `design research' for what is largely innovation management prattle.
It's a book for designers, not students. But I'm not sure what designers would get from it. Inspiration to engage more in user research? Perhaps. Encouragement to delve deeper into research methods, and to learn more? No; because the references and further reading are extremely limited. For instance, two potentially useful chapters, overviews of quantitative and qualitative methods respectively, have just one reference between them, and that's to Cooper's The Inmates are Running the Asylum, in the qualitative methods chapter.

Rating:
Summary: dumbass new student who LIKES the book ...
Review: Don't be deterred by the reviews. Check the book out for yourself. Personally I'm a bright but somewhat undereducated design student and while I'm only on page 31 I'm impressed with the thoughts and teachings. The other reviews sound a little snotty as in if you're well immersed in this culture and topic, yep it might not be for you, but I'm not. I'm discerning enough to think for myself but so far the writing has helped me think and understand the subject and my 'profession' a great deal.

Rating:
Summary: How disappointing...
Review: I agree with the reader from St. Louis. The design of this book is typical of Burdick, hard to read and disorganized. I was surprised that Brenda Laurel was associated with this in any way.

Rating:
Summary: An Insight to designer's process
Review: I found the book to be a great insight to the design process. By collecting different designers stories of their design process, it was very interesting, inspiring and definitely educational.

Rating:
Summary: Think differently
Review: If you want a linear, predictable textbook explanation of how to do design research, this book isn't for you. If, however, you want to be grounded in an appreciation of the craft by people who live it everyday, and inspired to think differently about its many facets and future, I highly recommend it. This book seems intended for the serious practioner who wants to elevate his or her game.

Rating:
Summary: A great browse
Review: The varied opinions among the existing reviews suggests this is somehow a strange subject area. I can only report on my own response, and I think this is a cool book. Before thumbing through to the preface you'll encounter a neat symbol of good design - a two page spread of the what's in the book. A true "table of contents," whose rows represent various aspect of design research, and whose columns are the book chapters. Each table cell is marked if that chapter pertains to that aspect. Pleasing to the eye and enormously useful, especially if you wish to use this as a text or part of some focused study.

Many chapters are authored by one or more designers who reflect on their own approach and experience in design. I found this to be a rich source of material for thinking about ways to create new things. I would think that nearly anyone whose job requires creative output will find here some interesting and useful tools to add to their collection.

Rating:
Summary: Not worth a look
Review: This book is a poorly edited collection of chapters from the author's friends. Although I was originally excited to see that such a book had been published, I was extremely disappointed with what I got.