Design as a Process of Inquiry, Dialogic Products and Learning-Centred Research Practices

One of the main problems in engineering industries is concerned with how, if, where and when to engage a wider group of stakeholders within engineering design processes. In the paper, we attend to the role dialogic products (in the form of research tools) play during collaborative design processes to address the following questions: How do you engage university researchers and company partners in the collaborative design of energy efficient products? How do you engage teenagers in the future design of public libraries? Working across multiple field sites and the interaction design-teaching studio, we focus on how to register reception of knowledge(s) generated through design anthropological research inquiry. Our main contributions lie here in relating theory and practice and the abstract material in learning-centred research practices. While nurturing skills of engagement within learning-centred research practices, we involve methods of participatory observation and design as a process of inquiry. We present processes of designing research tools within the context of a master’s and a doctoral research project by referring to two cases of collaborations between university researchers and the public/ private sectors in Denmark. Findings show that the research tools made during collaborative processes of designing instigate reflection/ reflexivity among researchers, students and external partners in relation to emergent design issues and briefs. The paper offers an understanding of the role dialogic products play in opening lines of design inquiry within multi-stakeholder design and field practices involving a diversity of communities engaged in university, public, private research partnerships.