Contents Toward a research culture Theory-centered approach User-centered approach Education-centered approach Innovation-centered approach Context-centered approach

Benny Tan Chon Meng Eric Koh Cheok Howe Temasek Design School Design research unplugged. a sustainable agenda for education and practice As the cybernetic era takes hold, with the internet and its associated technologies and applications subsuming every facet of living on our planet, the design landscape as it unfolds foretells of only one certainty: change. Change and the uncoupling of the theory and practice models that currently exist between the education of industrial designers and the practice of the “real world” must converge, with the resulting introspection sprouting signs of mature practices grounded in critical reflection. The old adage of respecting the boundaries of education and practice must surely have been covered by now, with the common complaints and tensions between the pragmatics of the studio and the more speculative flights of education and research resolved. One main shortcoming of the current foray of industrial design research efforts is that it fails to make its position explicit. A more rigorous dialogue/criticism model where these critical positions are explicitly established and defended would summon closer working relationships between education, research and practice in the “real world” that would reconfigure the profession and propel it successfully into this new era of cybernetic modernity. ← back | download 8 Kb pg370.zip