Re-conceptualizing Innovation in Design Research

Student interest in design research has strengthened over the last eight years. Design research is an emergent and diverse field, particularly at schools such as Design Studies, COFA, UNSW, which emphasize integration and inter-disciplinarity. At the same time, there is a paucity of models for supervisors of design research programs. Thus, researchers and supervisors of Honours, Masters and Doctoral research develop approaches and guidelines heuristically, drawing on and appropriating from other disciplines, for example, sociology, history, art, and occasionally science. Particularly problematic is the transition from undergraduate to doctoral studies when novice researchers stumble over certain misconceptions of innovation. Believing that design research, like design practice, is required to ‘pitch’ a new concept as if research is a form of marketing; that research innovation is the appropriation of explanatory frameworks from fields other than design; and that innovation is the result of resolving all aspects of a design situation. In these misconceptions novice researchers conflate aspects of design innovation and research innovation. As a result of such conflations at COFA, intriguing conceptualizations of innovation have emerged, only some of which are capable of driving research. This paper presents a preliminary analysis of how innovation is re-conceptualized in design research at Honours level, and demonstrates how this concept can function in design research training. The paper reflects on a significant sample of over one hundred Honours projects and theses completed in The School of Design Studies since 2002. The result is the identification of two key indicators of innovation in design research; strong social significance, and challenges to both traditional and emergent design conventions. To support this finding, two research projects are discussed in terms of these indicators, demonstrating how scholarly enquiry validates Honours design research claims rather than weakens innovation; and reflecting on the implications for design research pedagogy.