The design research community has recently been
very active in developing new types of methods,
often called innovative methods, through
experimentation and action research projects. The
stream of innovative methods incorporates visual
and creative components that are closer to a
designer’s genuine practices, aiming to support
projection of users’ own felt-experiences and their
creativity. Innovative methods are in principle
designed and re-designed in each project, while
conventional methods aim to be easily
reproducible and portable across situations. In this
paper, we illustrate what learning is going on in the
making process of the methods, rather than data
collected by the methods. Our aim is to foreground
the tangible benefits of innovative methods by
discussing how the making process of innovative
methods actually helps designers build contextual
knowledge important for the design situation.
Nordic Design Research Conference 2013
