Syllabus academic year 2011/2012
(Created 2011-09-01.)
RESEARCH METHODS IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGNIDEN35
Credits: 5. Grading scale: UG. Cycle: A (Second Cycle). Main field: Industrial Design. Language of instruction: The course will be given in English. IDEN35 overlaps following cours/es: IDE081. Compulsory for: MID2. Course coordinator: Guest teacher Anders Warell, Anders.Warell@design.lth.se, Industrial Design. Assessment: The mark “Passed”, depends on participation (at least 80 % of lectures), quality of development, final presentation, result(s) and written report to be revised after feedback. In group work, the contribution of each student must be clearly stated and acknowledged by the group. Further information: Educational form: Theoretical lectures and practical demonstrations, self-organised reading, group discussions and research under supervision, Group presentations and critics. Feed-back on reports by groups. Home page: http://www.ide.lth.se.

Aim
The aim of the course is to introduce basic principles of theory of science and the research process, as well as to present methods and models for realisation and documentation of projects of theoretical as well as practical nature. The course will give a vision of a subsequent research career in industrial design. It will at the same time support the coming diploma work and future work as a practising industrial designer.

Knowledge and understanding
For a passing grade the student must

be able to account for, plan, carry out, report and discuss a small research study in relation to current knowledge.

Contents
Industrial design is presented as a growing field of research within the design sciences and is positioned in its epistemologic and scientific context. The various phases of the research process are presented. Introductions are given to information searching in scientific data bases, scientific authorship and writing of popular reports. Research methods within the main areas of industrial design are presented by researchers in industrial design. Investigation methods in user-centred design will be given special attention in the course. The students will carry out small research projects with various investigation methods and report them according to scientific praxis.

Literature
Required literature will be made available during the course.