Imagen de fluorescencia y calcio citosólico

2.2.1 Opportunities

There are many opportunities for exploring the implications of the relationship between industrial design and science fiction. One possibility would be to employ design-based research methods to query what effect science fiction has on industrial designers, and how science fiction could be used to inspire both individuals and projects. Another possibility would be to investigate the

role that science fiction has played in the development of individual designers; for example, exploring the impact of science fiction literature, toys, movies or television programmes on the attitudes of emerging industrial designers. A third possibility would be a quantitative study that focuses purely on the number of industrial designers who respond to science fiction ideas and processes. However, given the lack of an existing theory for this area, the study must establish:

• If there is any relationship between industrial design and science fiction; • If so, what it means, and;

• Why this is occurring.

2.2.2 Study Questions and Research Methods

The type of information sought by the questions established in Section 1.8 limits the choice of methods to those that can be demonstrated to deliver that information.

Questions 1-5 are looking for themes, ideas and connections, and are primarily interested in qualitative information. These questions will be addressed in Chapter 3: Industrial Design, Chapter 4: Science Fiction and Chapter 5: Industrial Design and Science Fiction, using secondary information sourced through the literature review, as well as analytical tools described later in this chapter.

The supplementary questions have been more difficult to answer using strictly secondary sources, as very little material was identified through the literature review. These questions therefore need to be addressed by applying analytical tools to the literature review, and through primary research.

These supplementary questions are addressed in Chapters 3 to 6.

Of the eight supplementary questions, only one (f) is looking for essentially yes / no answers, which lead to quantitative methods. The remaining seven

questions (a, b, c, d, e, g, h) are seeking ‘why’ and ‘how’ information, which would lead to qualitative methods.

This supports the basic premise of the study, which is working from

observations of existing phenomena and trying to understand their meaning. In

Starting Fieldwork: An Introduction to Qualitative Research in New Zealand,

Tolich and Davidson (1999) state that:

Inductive logic… has a different starting point. It may begin with a strong personal interest in some topic such as a holiday in

Queenstown that left you with an overwhelming urge to understand what makes people want to bungie jump. Or it may be that there is no formal theory on a particular topic about which you want to understand more. Inductive logic research allows you to do these things because it moves the researcher from data collection to the developing of formal theory. (Tolich and Davidson, 1999. p. 32)

This is exactly the situation that instigated this study: observations suggested the existence of a relationship between science fiction and industrial design, requiring a generalist/overview approach to describing that relationship and then a move to proposing a theory. As this is the first study in this area, breadth of understanding is an appropriate aim.

Tolich and Davidson also state in Social Science Research in New Zealand,

In inductive research, the researcher moves from the observations, through generalisation, to theory generation. (Tolich and Davidson,

1999a. p.18)

Quantitative research is usually deductive, and qualitative research inductive. (Tolich and Davidson, 1999a. p.19)

This confirms that the research methods should be qualitative rather than quantitative. Qualitative information shows why the phenomena are occurring, and any shows how widespread the phenomena are. This study uses both

quantitative and qualitative methods, but as it is heavily biased towards discovering why the phenomena are occurring, qualitative methods predominate.

Table 1 shows how the supplementary study questions are addressed through qualitative/quantitative and primary/secondary research methods.

The discussion of the relationship between the two areas of industrial design and science fiction in Chapter 5 is based on the literature review, but is also informed by diagrammatical analysis of the material. The case studies in Chapter 6 also use qualitative and quantitative analysis of an online discussion, and of a structured interview carried out by email.

Table 1 Relationship between supplementary study questions and primary / secondary sources.

Qualitative Quantitative

Study question

Primary Secondary Primary Secondary

What can industrial design learn

from science fiction? Case studies Case studies Are science fiction processes

and ideas of relevance to industrial design projects?

Case study: Semi-structured

interview Literature review What impact does industrial

design have on science fiction?

Case study: Semi-structured interview Literature review Case studies Text analysis What impact does science

fiction have on industrial design?

Literature review Case studies Text analysis Why are industrial designers

interested in science fiction?

Online discussion analysis

Semi-structured interview

Literature review Are industrial designers

interested in the design content of science fiction movies?

Online discussion analysis

What design themes are evident in science fiction movies?

Text analysis: Taxonomy, Case studies How is industrial design

employed within science fiction movies?

Text analysis: Taxonomy, Case studies

2.2.3 Design Research

For the study to be both of interest and of use to industrial design, the research methods should produce and present information in a way that is relevant to industrial design.

In professional design practice, a range of methods has been developed specifically to generate information of use to industrial designers and design projects. In Design Research: Methods and Perspectives, Brenda Laurel (Laurel, (Ed.), 2003) collates and proposes a number of research methods appropriate to industrial design. Many of the new research methods aim to understand and define user experiences, an approach that is relevant to this study as its origins lie in personal experiences.

This study intended to draw on design research methods, but as the scale of the research grew, a decision was made to limit the scope of research methods to the literature review plus contributions from key informants. However, to present information in a way that is useful to design (information that does not just impart the raw data but adds a layer of interpretation) it is useful to use graphic models and diagrams. While industrial designers sometimes consider this a trite approach, it is nevertheless true that designers are visually sensitive and value the visual presentation of complex relationships and ideas.

Design practitioner and academic David Canaan comments:

Because my own creativity is based on creating visual relationships, I learn more by seeing than hearing. A picture is indeed worth a thousand words…. Researchers who add visual communications to their findings get significantly higher value from their insights. (Laurel,

2003. p. 237)

2.2.4 Ethics Issues in this Study

There are no special research ethics issues in this study. Much of the information has been extracted from the literature review. There is one semi-

structured interview with an overseas respondent, which took place as an email ‘conversation’, and included the necessary permissions. There are no research processes in the study that required a full submission or low-risk notification to the Massey University Human Ethics Committee.