Accessing the Inaccessible: Demonstrators as Sources of Tacit Knowledge

DS 116: Proceedings of the DESIGN2022 17th International Design Conference

Year: 2022
Editor: Mario Štorga, Stanko Škec, Tomislav Martinec, Dorian Marjanović
Author: Aleksandra Sviridova, Drim Stokhuijzen, Jouke Verlinden
Series: DESIGN
Institution: University of Antwerp, Belgium
Section: Design Theory and Research Methods
Page(s): 51-60
DOI number: https://doi.org/10.1017/pds.2022.6
ISSN: 2732-527X (Online)

Abstract

This paper highlights a recently identified by the community perspective of design research, so far described as "inaccessible", discusses the potential of "designerly" way of approaching it in order to let designers excavate tacit knowledge from their own finished projects. We frame demonstrators as a category of design outcomes that can be a great source of such knowledge. Skills of empathy and intuition are called crucial for researchers to position themselves inside the design system looking inwards.

Keywords: research as design, demonstrator, design research, design knowledge, prototyping