For those interested I have posted my recently completed doctoral thesis at:
http://idisk.mac.com/designarena-Public/
Feel free to download, print and share the thesis.
The thesis describes a reconceptualisation of the design process and fine grain analyses of the "how" of design students' practice.
The concept emerged from analyses of a series of situated, studio experiments, working with design and design engineering students here in Denmark and in the USA.
An interventionist and hermeneutic phenomenological approach was adopted throughout to investigate just how design students engage their design practice.
The download interface is not that intuitive, so to download the files there is a small arrow to the far right of each file title.
This is the download button and not the file title itself.
An extra detail is that if your operating system is Windows then you should be using Explorer 6 or later or Firefox 1.0.4 or later.
If you wish to print copies from the download feel free to do so - the printing instructions are on p.5 (and as a pdf on the download site) as are costs if you wish to order hard copies from me at Dkk 550 / € 74 / US dollars 100 (non-profit) + postage.
Just mail me at chris@designarena.dk
Yours,
Chris Heape.
Share more please
Dear Chris, congratulations to obtaining your Ph.D.
The DRNetwork is conceived as a platform to serve design research students. Hence, it would be wonderful if you might share more insights and experiences concerning your doctoral research? For example, how did you decide on the interventionist and hermenutic phenomenological approach? What do you think of this approach now? Was there big surprises and hiccups during your study and how have you overcome them? Any other tips and advices that you have for our doctoral students.
The design process
Thank you Rosan.
I'll just make a brief comment for now.
Ch 3 of the thesis describes in detail my empirical field, how I reached a methodological approach and how I determined which methods could best support my inquiry. Rather than adopt a particular paradigmatic stance I chose to take a rather more pragmatic approach. By examining the implications of my main research questions (listed on p. 13 of Ch 1), I allowed these to help me draw out and describe both a methodological approach and those related methods necessary to engage my research endeavour as a whole.
It's all in there.
Yours,
Chris.