Design-oriented Human—Computer Interaction - Fallman 2003

HCI has become a design-oriented discipline of research focused on invention, design, and development of new information and interaction technology. The field lacks a philosophical, theoretical, and methodological grasp of such a research mindset. This paper discusses design and HCI. First, three design theory views of what design 'is' are introduced: conservative, romantic, and pragmatic. Examining the role of sketching in design reveals that the designer engages in a vital dialogue in which the design challenge and its solution are worked out concurrently. In conclusion, we must acknowledge the function of design in HCI and the difference between knowledge-generating Design-oriented Research and artifact-generating Research-oriented Design.

Fallman, D. (2003, April). Design-oriented human-computer interaction. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems (pp. 225-232).