<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><h2 class="MPReader_Profiles_SpringerLink_Content_PrimitiveHeadingControlName"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; "><p class="references">The debate about empirical research rather easily descends into a fight between "it's just your opinion" (scientists about designers) and "you don't understand the real world" (designers about scientists).</p><p class="references">A version of this debate has been going on as long as I can remember, and before.</p><p class="references"><h2 class="MPReader_Profiles_SpringerLink_Content_PrimitiveHeadingControlName"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; "><p class="references">From 1965: ‘Before scientific research, printers and type designers were concerned mainly with the esthetic appearance of the printed page. This preoccupation with esthetics, together with considerations of economy and tradition, dominated all typography until about 1920. As a result of these obstructive emphases, a scientific typography has been slow in developing. Indeed, the printing industry continues to resist procedural changes suggested by experimental findings.’ Miles Tinker (1965) Bases for Effective Reading, University of Minneapolis Press, page 115.</p><div>From 1982: ‘[the technology of text] exists as a counterpoint to the artistic and unsystematic approach to text design and layout that has prevailed since petroglyphs were first inscribed on walls’. David Jonassen (1982) The Technology of Text, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications, page x.</div></span></h2></p><p class="MsoNormal">On the other hand...</p><p class="references">From 1931: ‘[the univariate research design] is good experimental technique. It is an article of faith among investigators. Yet it won’t work in the way it has been applied to typography unless one is prepared to go to very unusual lengths with it.’ Buckingham BR (1931) ‘New data on the typography of textbooks’ , Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, 30, page 104.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>From 1975: ‘No one, in our opinion, can possibly predict all the variables that might interact with the one chosen for experimentation. And even if a comprehensive list of variables could (by some magic) be drawn up, the permutations would generate millions of experiments – far more than could ever be executed… The same mental set that predisposes researchers to choose problems that can be neatly handled in a laboratory also inhibits them from going outside their circle to see the problems that typographers face in practice.’ Macdonald-Ross M & Waller RHW (1975) Criticisms, alternatives and tests: a framework for improving typography, Programmed Learning & Educational Technology, 12, page 76</o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">__________________________________</span></o:p></p></span></h2><div apple-content-edited="true"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; ">Rob Waller</span></span></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; ">Department of Typography & Graphic Communication</span></span></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; ">University of Reading</span></span></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; ">T +44 (0) 118 378 6411</span></span></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; ">M +44 (0) 7850 665933</span></span></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div></span></span></div></span></div></span></div><div><div>On 5 Mar 2010, at 20:00, Jose Marconi Bezerra de Souza wrote:</div> <br><blockquote type="cite">Dear Jorge,<br><br>I will try to make myself clear:<br><br>I am developing a list of arguments in favour of (or against, if you like) empirical research.<br>But, I am focused on empirical research that involves statistical analyses only.<br> <br>I am not looking for examples of design practice informed by empirical research.<br>I agree with you in relation to the "Information Design Journal". <br>I made a contribution myself.<br><br>How about now? Any specific sugestion?<br> <br>Many thanks for asking.<br><br>José.<br></blockquote></div><br></body></html>