Research Methods for Design
HDG530Z
Overview
To enrol in this unit, you must be accepted into a course from the provider.
Read before you start
Level of study: What does Postgraduate mean?
Postgraduate
EFTSL: What does EFTSL mean?
0.125
Delivery Method: What does delivery method mean?
Fully Online
Prerequisites: What are the prerequisites?
No
Duration:
13 weeks
Government loans available:
FEE-HELP FEE-HELP
Domestic student fee:
$2,300.00 (AUD)
International student fee:
$2,525.00 (AUD)
Description
This unit aims to provide you with the design research skills to enhance your creative conceptualisation abilities and provide evidence to support your design decisions. This includes the ability to collect and visualise secondary research, conduct primary research using a variety of interviewing, self-documentation and participatory design, and observational methods.
Enrolment Restriction
In order to enrol in this unit, you must be accepted into one of the following courses:
If you wish to seek approval to enrol in this unit without being accepted in a course, please contact OUA regarding the process.
Assessment
- Assignment 1 — Project Brief 1 (35%)
- Assignment 2 — Project Brief 2 (40%)
- Assignment 3 — Project Brief 3 (25%)
Learning Outcomes
At the completion of this unit students will be able to:
- engage and employ a wide range of qualitative and quantitative methodologies related to design research and practice
- articulate the concepts of secondary research, primary research, data analysis and synthesis in design research
- articulate the concepts of discovery, generative and evaluative design research
- design and construct a research-based concept proposal for design
- explore the ethical responsibilities of designing for and with people and the environment
- appreciate the concepts of QAME (question, assumptions, methods and evidence), people-centred design, sustainable design and evidence-based design.
Topics
This unit addresses the following topics.
| Number | Topic |
|---|---|
| 1 | Choosing a topic of design inquiry or creative conceptualisation |
| 2 | Conducting secondary research |
| 3 | Ethics in research and design |
| 4 | Conducting interviews for design research |
| 5 | Self-documentation and participatory design methods |
| 6 | Conducting observations for design research |
| 7 | Design analysis: capturing and sorting data |
| 8 | Design analysis: interpretation and story telling |
| 9 | Design synthesis: visualisation |
| 10 | Design synthesis: performance |
Study Resources
This unit is delivered using the following methods and materials:
Instructional Methods
- Blogs
- Discussion Forum/Discussion Board
- Embedded Multimedia
- Interactive Games
- Online Quizzes/Tests
- Online assignment submission
- Podcasting/Lecture capture
- Standard Media
- Streaming Multimedia
- Web links
- Wikis
Textbooks are subject to change within the academic year. Students are advised to purchase their books no earlier than one to two months before the start of a unit.
Click on the titles of the listed books below to find out more:
Required textbooks
By:Bernard H. Russell
ISBN: -
Format:Print
Supplier:Go to Unibooks
Recommended textbooks
Relevant Courses
This unit is a core requirement in the following courses:
This unit may be eligible for credit towards other courses:
- Many undergraduate courses on offer through OUA include 'open elective' where any OUA unit can be credited to the course. You need to check the Award Requirements on the course page for the number of allowed open electives and any level limitations.
- In other cases, the content of this unit might be relevant to a course on offer through OUA or elsewhere. In order to receive credit for this unit in the course you will need to supply the provider institution with a copy of the Unit Profile in the approved format, which you can download here. Note that the Unit Profile is set at the start of the year, and if textbooks change this may not match the Unibooks textbook list.
