Re-reading Design Methodology and the "Toolbox" Metaphor. (3rd May 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Townsend, Scott
• Is Part Of: Design and culture. Volume 8:Number 2(2016)
• Page Start: 199
• Page End: 204
• Publication Date: 2016-05-03
• Subjects: design methods -- design practice -- boundary object -- social science; Design -- Philosophy -- Periodicals; Design -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 745.4
• DOI: 10.1080/17547075.2016.1187914
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1754-7075

Abstract

Abstract: In 2006 Paul Dourish gave a paper about ethnography and its implication for creating design intervention and form. This is part of the basis of this paper, which illustrates the need to develop critical interrogations of what Dourish called a "toolbox of methods." The paper argues that the metaphor of the "toolbox" suggests a departure from the reflexivity of the social sciences, where theory and method are continuously questioned and interrogated. The article concludes with a recommendation for how design practice might benefit from such reflexivity.