Structuring roles in Research through Design collaboration

Abstract

In Research through Design knowledge is generated, but not always captured and shared effectively. When working in a multidisciplinary team of, e.g. designers, design researchers, academic researchers and domain practitioners confusion aboutroles, processes, and results easily occurs. In a series of three Research through Design cases we developed a set of role descriptions to help structuring the collaboration in such projects, using different configurations of people, roles and documentation tools. We conclude with a structure for assigning roles that enables multidisciplinary teams to make their Research through Design process moreexplicit, reflect on their activities as part of process data, and propose moments to capture knowledge from all actors involved.Design Conceptualization and Communicatio