Design Research Framework
Project: Design Research Framework (DRF)
About: The development of a Design Research Framework to situate students projects, integrated into the ICT system to create a living archive and pedagogical tool.
Collaboration with: Heads of the DAE’s Master and Bachelor departments, educational desk, and management team.
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SI-LAB aims to create a comprehensive research framework to transform design projects executed by BA and MA students of all years into building blocks. Despite significant research at DAE, the focus often lies on outcomes (e.g. see the graduation catalogues) rather than the underlying research and the research performed by all students throughout their studies. Many valuable universal ideas generated during a specific design process often remain hidden. The Design Research Framework aims to make this knowledge explicit and accessible to peers, enabling projects to serve as building blocks rather than mere showcases, and fostering continuity and depth over novelty.
SI-LAB seeks to shift towards public sharing of research results, providing insights for dissemination and development. This fosters informed decisions about underexposed methods, incentivising a culture in which students reflectively position themselves and their work.
The Design Research Framework:
- Builds on knowledge from “makers”: Clarity on what knowledge embedded in design process entails while also encouraging referencing other makers rather than relying predominantely on theoratical sources, as is currently often the case.
- Cultivates an Open Access and Open Source ethos: Making the knowledge produced within the academy more accessible to both students and staff, thereby creating a centralised body of knowledge that can be shared, acessed, and further developed by peers, countering a trend of protectionism.
- Positions design research in an interdisciplinary context: Establishing clear guidelines for knowledge sharing in practice-based research, in order to better articulate DAE’s contributions within interdisciplinary collaborations.
- Incentivises research profiles in the curriculum: The framework encourages a research oriented design practice for students who, for example, are interested in pursuing a PhD or PD in design.
- Develops fairer evaluations: Developing appropriate evaluation criteria to ensure more equitable assessment of methods used in artistic and design research. Currently, continuity in research is often overlooked in assessment practices, and not all tutors are adequately equipped to evaluated research-based work.
- Bridges knowledge worlds: the framework contributes to quality assurance of design research, creating stadards that helop bridge the gap between quantitative and qualitative research and between scientific research and design research.
Need for DAE:
- Positioning as an education and research platform, essential for accreditation and collaboration, ensuring DAE stands on equal footing with other universities.
- Strengthening visibility as a a knowledge institute of international significance in researching and shaping the future of design research.
- A platform for projects that are more research oriented that might otherwise remain underexposed or not recognised as such.
- Increasing relevance for grant applications, with attention to data management, research integrity, and other
Further Links
- More info about the Design Research Framework can be found here: https://artanddesignresearch.org/
- Workshop DRF @DAE Educational Day here: https://www.designacademy.nl/page/6782/design-research-framework. Testing the framework’s relevance internally.
- Workshop DRF @AHK Teacher Day here: https://www.designacademy.nl/page/8009/si-lab-workshop-recap-a-framework-for-art-and-design-research. Testing the framework’s relevance for another art institute.
- Workshop DRF (planned) @DDW 2025. Testing the framework’s relevance with a wider public.
