Evidence-Based Design

As I've written before, Interior Design often gets confused with Interior Decorating. As a student pursuing a Master's Degree in Interior Design, I often get asked what exactly there is to study at a Master's level in ID. To a lot of people's shock I also explain that you can pursue a degree all the way up to a PhD in Interior Design just like any other reputable degree. People seem completely confused and ask what kind of "color matching" or "fabric selection" they could possibly teach at a PhD level. While I also had thoughts along the same path upon entering into the study of ID, I soon realized that there a million things to study at a higher level in this discipline.

Through a good education and much research I have come to realize that ID is a major contributor to the health, safety, and well being of people. At least when done correctly. Every day people enter into built spaces to live, work, and play. These spaces can be wonderful, beautiful, well-functioning, and have the occupants best interest in mind. Or they can be ugly, hard to use, fire hazards waiting to happen. It all depends on how it was laid out. Interior Design is not just picking out pretty colors. It is studying building codes, human behavior, keeping up with new health and environmentally conscious products, ergonomics, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and a ton of other information to produce the best, most user friendly designs possible. if an Interior designer is not doing all of this they are, in my opinion, a bad designer. Not just bad, but irresponsible.

That brings the conversation to a concept that all Interior Design projects should utilize. Evidence-based design is defined by healthdesign.org as "the process of basing decisions about the built environment on credible research to achieve the best possible outcomes." While this concept is mainly taking root in health care design, I feel that all aspects of ID should follow this principle idea. We expect doctors and pharmacists to keep up on the latest research so that they may best treat us. Why should we not expect the same of our ID professionals? ID has such a large influence on people every day it should not even be a question. We should be basing our designs on research and evidence, not whims and our personal preferences.

There is a ton of research out there if designers will just go and look for it. Not that research should ever completely take away from the creative aspect. All projects should have their own feel and beauty to them, they should just be based on what is proven to be best for the end user. Sites like informedesign.com is a great resource for design-based research. Many other scholarly journals can be used to establish a good basis for your design that will benefit everyone that might use it.

As a Master's student in ID, it is my responsibility to add to the growing amount of design information there is out there already. I have learned how important it is to have research to utilize in the design process. Research in ID should no longer be just about programming and information gathering, it should also include research that is published in scholarly journals that has been reviewed by our peers. A great book on this subject is called "Informing Design" by Joan I. Dickinson and John P. Marsden.

Evidence-Based design seems to make common sense to me as a designer. I can't understand why there seems to be a backlash against it in the ID community. We as designers are here to do what is best for our client, and the end user. Why not use all of the resources at our disposal to do the best job that we can?