Northumbria University

Graduate Student, School of Design

Other Affiliations: Design Council (co-sponsor), N/A

PhD Candidate

Northumbria University

Thesis Title: Understanding the different roles of the designer in design for social good. A study of design methodology in the Dott 07 (Designs of the Time 2007) projects.

About

My PhD research explores design methodology in the Dott 07 (Designs of the Time 2007) initiative through seven different roles of the designer when they design for social good. Dott 07 explored how design and designers  create innovative responses to social issues. This research examines design methodology in seven design projects of Dott 07, where designers worked with public and social sector organisations and local communities, to address and respond to issues in health, education, energy, mobility and food (Dott 07, 2007).

Since the 1960s design methodology research has focused almost solely on the process of design “to the exclusion of everything else” (Dorst, 2008: 5). As a result, the designer has become “the missing person in design research” (Dorst, 2008: 5-8). Research in design methodology, while succeeding in building a substantial body of knowledge in ‘knowing-what’ of the design process, has lacked in the area of ‘know-how’  of the designer (Cross et al in Jacques and Powell, 1981: 26). In addition to this, design research and literature has seen a paucity in elaborations and explorations of designer roles. This led the research investigation to reframe design methodology from the process of design, to the study of the different roles of the designer.

A Grounded Theory approach was used whereby theory emerges from the data collected (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). Qualitiatve research, in particular semi-structured interviews with a number of Dott 07 stakeholders, were undertaken to form a series of Dott 07 case studies (Yin, 1994) that examine their context, content and process (Young, 2008). A number of novel research methods were employed to analyse and synthesise the data, leading to a ‘layering’ (Heskett, 2002) of academic research methods with methods adapted from design practice. Successive peer reviews enabled a ‘stockpiling of knowledge’ (de Certeau, 1986) where the interaction of research with the real world continuously validated the study, creating ‘intersecting strands of data’ (Derrida in Pryke et al, 2003: 31) that converged to create a body of new design knowledge.

Each Dott 07 case study identifies a dominant role of the designer. A single and dominant role enabled a focused investigation and interrogation of design activity. Seven roles in Dott 07 recognise the designer as: Co-creator; Researcher; Facilitator; Capability Builder; Social Entrepreneur; Provocateur and Strategist. As these roles exist in other fields and disciplines, analogous literature reviews were conducted, for example from fields such as strategy, social entrepreneurship and facilitation, to create a better understanding of the roles, their practices and articulations of the value of the designer in multi-stakeholder cooperations that address complex social issues.

This investigation demonstrates how new design knowledge is generated when design methodology research is reframed from process to people, elaborating and articulating the practices, methods and value of designers when they design for social good. This PhD investigation aims to understand design methodology in Dott 07 to discover new knowledge for design methodology research and gain new insight into how designers address and respond to complex social challenges faced by governments, organisations and society at large.

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