Output details

Physicality in design : an exploration.

Funded under the AHRC/EPSRC ‘Designing for the 21st Century’ initiative, this research was part of the Designing for Physicality (DEPtH) project (http://www.physicality.org). Dr Evans was an expert panel member and research consultant. The research investigated the impact of physicality on product design - how humans experience, manipulate, react and reason about 'real' physical things, and how can this understanding inform the future design of innovative products. This paper presents empirical research exploring physicality in design. It examines how physical materials impact early design through a study that explores how groups with very different materials tackle a common design challenge.

The research approach was open and exploratory rather than controlled, reflecting the aim to understand new behaviours rather than quantify known ones. Ethnographic observation was used that included both live observations with field notes and also video-recording to capture the design process and its outcomes for detailed review. Video transcripts were subjected to a systematic in-depth iterative analysis using dialectic re-coding.

The research findings form a significant contribution to the discourse surrounding physicality in design and in particular how to maximise the benefits of specific physical materials in prompting new ideas.