So I'm chinging this up a little

Basically I started this blog to discuss interior design and interior design education. I would still like to incorporate some of that, but I've decided to swich the main focus for now to my thesis research and the impossible process that I'm going through regarding the program, Second Life, and research in interior design.

For those of you who aren't familiar, Second Life (SL) is a virtual world where people are represented by avatars of their design. SL can literally become your second, or first if you let it, life. It is all encompassing in every respect. You can, and probably should, have a job, own a business, get married, divorced, have a child, own property, rent property, and just about anything you can do in real life (even the "adult" stuff). It requires a high level of immersion, or feeling "into" the game or invested in it to really be a part of this highly social world. SL also has it's own cultures, and social norms which are very important. Like real life, the social norms are often difficult and sometimes painful to learn.

So when I decided to go to grad school and do a thesis as an interior design student I knew I wanted to research in retail design. Most of my interest had always been in this area, as well as my professional work experience. But when it came time to pick a topic for my thesis it was much more difficult than I thought it would be.

Picking a topic for a thesis requires lots of whittling down of a general subject to a very specific and testable question. I started out wanting to research color in the environment and either impulse purchases or how gender and color preference are related. Somehow, through many meetings with my advisor on how to accomplish these tests we came to the idea of using SL for my research.

At first we were going to build a whole retail store and essentially see what people thought of it. It would be identical to the real life (RL) store where researchers had done a study testing how people felt about that retail environment. If the results were similar in SL to RL we could figure that people perceive things in virtual worlds like SL in a similar way to RL. Well, this was very complex and if I had gone this way I probably would be in grad school working on my thesis for another million years or so.

So, finally we found a study done in the 80's evaluating consumer emotional recation to the retail environment in RL. Perfect! So now to mimic the study in SL. Another complication arose now....um...last minute....this instrument (Survey questions) are not very good. Literally, this came up right before I was about to launch my survey...sigh. So now to do a pilot study revising some of the questions to fit modern statistical analysis and methods.

Now for the fun part...We decided to make podiums that hand out information note cards (basically messages) in SL from various retail stores where the owners agreed to place my posium in their store. Again, another problem came up. After waiting a while and getting only a handful of responses, I realized people are thinking that the podiums are some sort of spam delivery system, which are similar and all too common in SL.

So my next attempt was to try posting on the SL forum. Well...all hell broke loose. Apparently people on the SL forum are inundated constantly with shoddy surveys that ask way too much personal information, and marketing companies only trying to make a profit. So, they knocked my attempt to solicit survey participants like only anonymous people on the internet can do. Well, I tried again in the education section of the forum and got zero response...so sad. So, I revised my writing and have tried one more time in the general section of the forum. While I might get some attacks from posters, I also get more participants this way than I've gotten any other way. I can take a little flack if I get what I want in the end.

So, I have about 20 survey participants that have taken it now, and am hoping for 80...ugh. Not looking forward to the drive that is left. I think for my final full survey I will be bribing SL residents with L$ (SL currency) to take the survey. I hope this will work!

Wish me luck! The results should be very interesting and have tons of implications!!!

Research in interior design--what is it really?

As a practicing interior designer in graduate school I have recently stumbled upon the concept that research, as we have been taught for years, is not all that it might be cracked up to be.

We are taught in early schooling that research is merely looking up information in a book to get the facts you need to write a paper, or do another assignment. For some reason they do not bother to tell you that what you think is research is really just fact finding. True research is expanding the body of knowledge that exists. It is finding new information to be added to the astronomical pile of knowledge we as humans have discovered.

I swear this does apply to interior design...

Here's how:
We as designers are taught in a method that further reinforces fact finding to be considered as research. Until grad school I knew of no difference between the two. Now I am realizing that there is a distinct difference. Part of what influenced this blog is a great book called "Informing Design." It explicitly explains the differences between these two activities and how it applies to interior design.

Fact finding in interiors is fully necessary for any project. It includes programming with client interviews and space analysis. It also includes looking at products best suited for your design, finding in, and past designs which might be similar and successful. But research is something we are not always taught in school.

Research in interiors is the same as in any other field. It includes many things such as testing hypotheses, or analyzing past research. Emphasizing true research in this field is what might finally bring it up to being seen at the same level as any other reputable field instead of being seen as a "pretty career" or something else frivolous.

We as designers need to take on the responsibility of using true research from sites such as GoogleScholar and InformeDesign to make evidence-based design. Utilizing research that has been proven through testing is a much better way to design your project than just picking what YOU like. We are not in this field to just pick the colors we personally are most attracted to. We are in this business to do what is best for our client. By using research to design we can achieve the best outcomes for life safety, environmental psychology, quality design, and sustainability. In this aspect we are no different from others such as doctors who use research and testing to pick the best diagnosis and treatment for their patients. We should use this same mentality to pick the best design solution.

This is all not to say that we should make ugly designs. That is also part of our responsibility, and part of some of the many things that have been researched. Aesthetics should also be vitally important to any project, especially when combined with proven design information.

We as designers need to be as responsible in our approach to creating the spaces people live, work, and play in as any other field. we need to get over this "pretty" HGTV reputation we have and show what we are really out there doing.

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?