In the comments below, please describe what you think a design case is based on this reading. Does this inform how you might think about presenting your final project to stakeholders? How might you use the techniques given to establish "trustworthiness" in your presentations. Optional Reading: A Practical Guide to Open Portfolios by Maker Ed (Nov 2016) just released at the Maker Ed Open Portfolio workshop.
Amanda Johnson
11/21/2016 11:46:19 am
I had never heard of design cases before, however Boling ‘s description of what a design case was NOT, was helpful for me to understand this new concept. A design case is not research on design, development research, validation of a design, nor a teaching case. Design cases are simply a precedent that is concrete and situated in a particular context. This differs from research or evaluative studies in a fundamental way. Design cases are not hypothesis testing or generalizing; rather they are a rich example of a particular design used to help push other designs in the future.
Sarah Klein
11/21/2016 12:05:21 pm
According to Elizabeth Boling in “The Need for Design Cases: Disseminating Design Knowledge”, a design case is documentation of design rationale, designed artifacts and experiences, and designers’ reflections on the process. The precedents of design cases can be used proactively. Design cases are helpful both for novice and expert designers. Boling talks about the need to write design cases in a context-specific fashion. In this way, readers will be able to understand the context of the design case and then evaluate whether or not implications of the case can be transferred to another discipline or project. Boling discourages writers of design cases to write in this kind of transferability or generalizability. It should be left to the reader to make this connection so that the nuances of the specific case are not diluted. Boling also emphasizes that design cases should be rigorous. By rigorous, she means that the case does not reduce what has been observed or assume that the utility of what is being described will be forever standard. Boling says that rigor includes building rapport with the reader by providing context that allows for readers’ independent assessments of the design case content and weaving transparency throughout the design case. This reading makes me appreciate the importance of contextualization and designing for specific contexts, but I am now wondering where there is room for generalizability in design.
Jordan Marks
11/21/2016 07:18:55 pm
As I read Boling’s article, my scientific training and tendencies made me feel very uncomfortable with what design cases are and are not. I found the structure of the article rather difficult to process; I felt like I did not have a good grasp of what design cases WERE before Boling began discussing what they were NOT. That comparison would have been more useful to me after a bit more discussion of what design cases are than the nebulous statement of “a description of a real artifact or experience that has been intentionally designed.” I also think my understanding of design cases would have been much enhanced by an example – I did not find her descriptions particularly accessible.
Stephanie Liao
11/21/2016 08:37:45 pm
Boling has a strong opinion about what design cases are not meant for. For example they are not design pattern papers and they are not papers to validate a product design. She acknowledges that design cases covers more than the basic definition of a detailed description of a product for design. Design cases are around to establish precedents in design. In order to accomplish this task, some reports have summarized a portion of their research. However, the author clearly makes the point that the design case should not be centered around this validation. The purpose is more to the point of getting the design idea out as a precedent for others in the future. Each person that reads the design case may be influenced in a different way, but the point is to get the general design idea out in the open. Design cases can help readers develop expertise, inspire, and build appreciation for the design community.
Annie Kim
11/21/2016 10:35:38 pm
I've never heard of a design case before, but after reading the article I think I have some sense of what it is (though not entirely sure if I'm correct). To me, it seems that a design case is a concrete precedent, or some sort of documentation and process work of a specific case study. It's not the research that goes into a design, or validation research or teaching cases. Rather, it's description of either the artifact or experience around which went into designing something, or at least the intent of designing something. Design precedents can help improve many different fields of design and ongoing projects, according to the article.
Tom Garncarz
11/21/2016 11:13:41 pm
As described in Boling, design cases represent an example of a specific design problem and context, and the solution that was created in response. The closest analogue that I can think of would be a legal precedent; both tell relatively rich stories about a specific event, but both also go on to inform the decision-making process in future cases. In this way, design cases represent a way for designers to crystalize their experiences in ways that inform future design, whether within that domain or otherwise.
Miki Nobumori
11/22/2016 12:16:13 am
In the excerpt, The Need for Design Cases: Disseminating Design Knowledge, Boling describes the definition of design cases as specialized and critical forms of design knowledge. Based on the comparisons that the author makes with other definitions, I think that design cases are case studies that illustrate the intentions of a design and serves as material for learning and sharing the value of design.
Eunsol Byun
11/22/2016 03:31:25 am
From the reading, the author describes design case as “a description of a real artefact or experience that has been intentionally designed.” The definition given in the reading seemed very broad. Design case, to me at first, seemed like a design process book that includes all the procedures the designers went through to arrive to the final design decision and last but not least, the final product itself. But then the reading continued talking about what design case is not. Design cases are not research on design, not research in design, not design and development research, not validation studies focused on particular designs, not design-based research or not teaching cases. What design case is not were all included in what I thought design case was.
Nick Lewis
11/22/2016 09:36:51 am
If a design case is a "vehicle for dissemination of precedent, direct or vicarious experience of existing designs stored as episodic memory"… then we are off to a start where I still have no idea what a design case is! What the heck does that mean.
Charleen Yang
11/22/2016 09:39:06 am
The reading "The Need for Design Cases: Disseminating Design Knowledge" is very broad. The article spends a very long of sections on talking about what is not a design case. In author's opinion, design case is not research on design, not research in design, not design and development research, not validation studies, not design-based research, and not teaching case. However, the article didn't provide a clear definition of design case and didn't teach us what is the steps for us to reach a great design case. Based on my understanding of the broad definition fo design case in this study, design case is to establish precedents in design. It is more than providing information to the stakeholders. Design case is providing problem insights for stakeholders to get inspired. It demonstrates the solution that tied back to the problem, and all the design decisions that lead towards the idea creation. Comments are closed.
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