Wow!! <br>EXCELLENT feedback.<br>Thank you all for the generosity.<br><br>--------------------------------------<br><br>I suspect that there is another (maybe is the same) interesting debate involving:<br><br>(1) information designers who know how to design materials that deserves to be tested, <br>
but do not (or reject to) know how to design statistically based experiments to test them,<br><br>and <br><br>(2) empirical researchers who know how to calculate if there is statistically significant difference between materials, <br>
but who does not know how to design (or select) materials that can be considered as good enough by designers,<br><br>My personal challenge as a researcher (and teacher) is to find a reasonable compromise between<br>both competencies. I am doing my best so...<br>
<br>I have learned from my experience as a PhD researcher that the<br>so called "design thinking" should not be restricted to <br>the design of information design artefacts.<br>
The real challenge is to apply design thinking to the<br>of design experiments that compares those artefacts.<br><br>One possible path is <br>(1) to compare "design artifacts" that are recognised (or celebrated) as good responses to a specific problem,<br>
and, if "statistically significant" difference is found <br>(2) to Iook for theories that explain those results.<br>It can be the other way around so.<br>As Jorge has pointed out: <br>what really matters is to find WHY something seems to be better <br>
in the artificial (and rather limited) experimental context.<br><br>But, I can advance that to every reasonable explanation in favour of "Design A", <br>I can find an opposite (and quite reasonable too) explanation in favour of "Design B".<br>
These contrasting views teach us about the<br>possible scenarios in which A would be better than B and vice-versa.<br>For me, this continuous re-thinking and re-contextualization of apparently effective designs<br>IS the core of the so called design research.<br>
<br>José.<br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 6 March 2010 18:35, Rob Waller <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:r.waller@reading.ac.uk" target="_blank">r.waller@reading.ac.uk</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div style="word-wrap: break-word;"><h2><span style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;"><p>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>A version of this debate has been going on as long as I can remember, and before.</p><p></p></span></h2><h2><span style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;"><p>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 class="MsoNormal">On the other hand...</p><p>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">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</p>
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<font size="3"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">Rob Waller</span></span></span></font></div><div><div style="margin: 0px;"><font size="3"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">Department of Typography & Graphic Communication</span></span></span></font></div>
</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><font size="3"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">University of Reading</span></span></span></font></div><div style="margin: 0px;">
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<div style="margin: 0px;"><font size="3"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div></span></span></div></span></div></span></div><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></div></div><br>___________________________________________________________________<br>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>José Marconi Bezerra de Souza<br>Visiting lecturer of Paraná Federal University, Brazil <br>PhD - Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, The University of Reading (UK)<br>