Integration of Design Projects within a Ph.D.

摘要

For design Ph.D. candidates not to consider engaging in designing while undertaking research because of a lack of example or a lack of confidence in the legitimacy of the approach would be a travesty. This paper has argued that designing indeed can be successfully integrated into a Ph.D., and that candidates need not abandon their hard-won design skills and design portfolio in the process. Nor should their decision to enroll in a Ph.D. program necessarily dictate a future career researching and teaching in academia. The position that designing and researching are mutually incompatible no longer carries weight, so long as a carefully conceived research methodology is adopted. Confidence should be shown in the purpose of the integral design project(s), while serious thought must be exercised over how the project(s) should sit within the overall research agenda. What would be lost without the designing? What is the essential research function of the design project(s)?