Brief 9, finish thesis

Many of you are almost done with the thesis, except for the conclusions. Since I will see you still two times before you need to submit, we will look at the thesis again twice: first on 14 May at everything except the conclusions, second on 26 May during midterms at the complete thesis.

The thesis needs to be handed in 4 weeks from now, on Tuesday 2 June 2pm. This is very soon, and that means you need to look ahead at everything that still needs to be done for your thesis now. I suggest the following planning for all of you:

- Sunday 10 May, 6pm: DEADLINE for all things that still need to be done for your thesis, except the conclusions.

- Thursday 14 May I will be at the academy to discuss your submissions, and the best way to finish your conclusions.

- Thursday 21 May 6pm: DEADLINE for your complete thesis, also the conclusions (SUBMIT online link to pdf on dropbox).

- Tuesday 26 May: feedback on your thesis during the midterms.

- Tuesday 2 June, 2pm: hand in the thesis to Anna (SUBMIT 10 B/W copies + cd + online link to pdf on dropbox).

Please refer to the email with tutorial notes I sent out for personal guidance on what you still need to do on your thesis.
When you submit your next version please also post it to your blog (as a linked pdf) so I can see it appear in the right column on this page.

Brief 8, complete your first draft of the thesis

For the 14th, Fumi, Tatsuo, David, Gionata and WInnie (just chapter 2 for you Winnie) need to complete their first draft for me, based on the detailed notes I gave you at the finals. Deadline for submission is 9 April. Basically all of you do not have a complete first draft yet, or it is still too unstructured to see the argument you want to make. On the 14th I really want to see the story you want to tell. Now it is not there yet clear enough.

The others are further progressed and I suggest you spend more time on you design than on your thesis in this period up to the 14th of April. Do work however on the things I asked you to improve and complete (such as images, captions, references, bilbiography, ...). Think as well about how you would like to respond to my remarks on how you built your story and tell me in the meeting on the 14th how you are going to respond to this. If you have time you also already rewrite, but focus on images, references etc first and spend the majority of your time on designing. Your new version is also to be submitted on the 9th of April.

Submit your thesis as PDF via email to me and post it as PDF online in your blog too.

Finally, all of you should think about the design of your thesis. Some already did, but I want all of you to show me how you imagine you will present your thesis in the end. Design two pages of your thesis as you would like to have it in the end. Also bring two books or magazines you like for how they are designed. We will discuss the examples you bring together.

Brief 7: first draft of the thesis for end of 2nd term

Hello everyone,

as discussed several times before you all need to complete a first draft of your thesis for the end of the second term. To give me and your other mentors some time to read, please submit your PDF document by Thursday 12 March latest.

You can send the documents to me or put them on your blog using a service such as getdropbox.com. Best is to put them on your blog.

Please all work from the outlines we discussed on 13 Feb. Some of you had already a good structure then, other clearly had to work on it still. If you want to discuss a new structure with me still, please put it on your blog and let me know.

As mentioned before, please use the Harvard style http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm for your references.

Enjoy the writing!
Bas

Brief 6, visual timeline

Hi everyone,

for this term we want you to make a visual timeline of the context of your project.
It should be ready at the end of the term, but at midterm you could already show a first iteration of it.

Here is what we are looking for:

Each of your projects exists in a certain context. This context can exist of objects and environments, activities and services. It includes practices of people. It has a history that dates back at least decades, probably even centuries. The context will exist in one or more cultures, geographical regions or with certain peoples.

We want you to visualise this context of your project on something like timeline that shows all of the above aspects of context as far as you consider them relevant and/or inspiring for your project. Take a designers perspective to this too: The references that other designers might find relevant to your project should be there.

You probably all already have collected many images of these relevant references. You probably need more still too. But this is not just about collecting images. As we discussed in the design research workshop it is also about creating insights and understanding. Do this in a visual way. Images can be organised in many ways. Be creative and use the activity of organising your images to achieve the understanding and insights you are looking for.

On Fri 13 Feb when I see you all I would like to see a first iterarion of your visual timeline.
The final result could be a great appendix to your thesis too, and help you to make your thesis more visual.

If it helps, feel free to bring some inspiring examples of similar visual timelines when we meet on 13 Feb.

Design research exploration workshop

Thursday 29 January we did a joint year 1 and 2 workshop to explore what we consider to be design research. In particular we were looking for when design becomes research. Reflection on what you do is important we found. This reflection can turn into knowledge that results from research if we are capable of communicating our reflections clearly and eloquently. What for instance is not really research is simply collecting a lot of stuff, such as images, stories or objects. You need to create insights and understanding from these collections to actually do research as part of your design.

There is much more that came out. We have started a joint website to which all students contribute to document the results of the workshop. this will allow us to collectively create knowledge of what is design research to students at the M+H MA at the design academy over time. The site aims to be a tool to all of us.

Brief 5, make thesis outline

The thesis outline is structured as the table of contents of your thesis, but it contains more information than a table of contents: each item is briefly annotated (3-4 sentences only) to allow the reader to follow the argument you are setting up in the thesis.

I understand you will not have fully formed the argument of your thesis by early Feb, but have a go at it. You never get it right first time so better do several iterations. For the same reason it is good to not leave writing the outline to the last minute before the deadline but do several ones over time and look at them again after a while before deciding on the one you will submit to me.

The thesis outline must contain:
- An introduction in which you 'set up your stall' as they say. This is where you explain your research question and why it is relevant, also in the Man and Humanity context.
- A "middle bit": see below.
- Conclusions
- Bibliography (using Harvard formatting, include both items you read/viewed/listened to and items you identified but must still look at, indicate which is which)

The middle bit is open to many different structures. Basically you should choose the structure that suits your thesis, the argument you want to present, best. I can mention however some elements I would expect in there though:
- Context of the research (the current debate about your subject, relevant literature, your netwok of experts, stakeholders and (extra)ordinary people)
- Something about your methods and methodologies, including how the research fits into your design process
- A description of the research you have done, and most importantly the insights you gained from it. This includes the sources you have used, for instance you should make clear you have built up a network of people around you, how you have involved them, and what you learned from conversations with them.
- A description of what you have done with the insights from your research: how did you use them in your design?
- And since we discussed that design can be part of the research process too, the reverse could be true as well: how did your design influence the research you did and the insights you gained from the research?
- A visual timeline that shows the historical context of your topic.

Please note that I did not put these "middle bit" elements in any particular order, nor are they supposed to be separate elements per se. The context of your research could be divided over the whole of the middle bit for instance, as long as it is there. Of course you will have recognised the literature research and people research reports that I asked you to do in the list. But you can do them in different ways, mix with other elements, as long as the content is there somewhere.
Make sure that all elements I mention above are present, and feel free to add others too.

It can be useful, if you explore several ways of contructing your argument, to use the mindmapping skills we practised in workshop 1.

It can also be useful to read (again) the Design Academy Regulations because they mention some additional requirements for the thesis and your research, as well as the criteria against which you will be judged.

The outline has a maximum 500 words, excluding bibliography.
You can include images in the actual outline if you feel they are essential to communicate the summary of the argument you want to make.

Deadline: Tuesday morning 10 Feb, post on your blog

Great design research resource from IDEO

Happy New Year to you all, it will be an exciting year for all of you I'm sure!

I just came across this great resource for design research using human centred design methods as I always propagate in our course. It is a toolkit that was developed by IDEO for an NGO working with small holder farmers in Vietnam. The level of detail in the toolkit (that you can download) is very good. Since it is so detailed you will need to put effort in changing it if you want to use it for your own projects but that is good because it will help you to understand what it really is useful for.

I particularly like the strong connection between design and research in this toolkit, and the strong emphasis on listening and prototyping.

Enjoy!