Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Book note: "Making Design Theory" by Johan Redström

It is great to see books being published by people you respect as scholars and thinkers. I am especially happy to see my colleague and friend John Redström's new book "Making Design Theory". Johan is one of the most thoughtful scholars in the world today when it comes to how to understand the relationship between design practice, design research, and knowledge production. Johan is one of the few who can, in a scholarly and successful way, grapple with fundamental questions around design as an approach of making things and of making theory.


One of the most important features of this book is that it presents a foundation of concepts and definitions that are philosophically sound and practically useful.  I am convinced that his thoughts around design research: what it is, how to think about it, but also how to actually do it, will soon be regarded as a fundamental corner stone in the field of design research and research about design.

This is a book I strongly encourage every PhD student who is involved in any form of design research to carefully read. It will provide them with an understanding that is solidly grounded and practically useful. It will help them to defend the way they do (design) research and it will lead to new kinds of theory development that will seriously improve the field.

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