What did I learn from my research fellowship at CADRE?

It has been over a year since I joined CADRE as a research fellow. My first and main responsibility was the Agile Dwelling Unit project, a collaboration between researchers and practitioners from the University of Texas Arlington, HKS Architects, and CADRE. Beyond that, I participated in some other projects in various capacities, such as conducting literature reviews, analyzing data, writing and reviewing reports, developing research frameworks, tools, and guidelines, and even managing some social media accounts of CADRE. Throughout my research fellowship at CADRE, I have collaborated and been mentored by many established researchers and designers, to whom I owe my growth as a design researcher.

Having been trained in academic settings, my experience as a CADRE researcher gave me new perspectives on research in practice. Here are three things I learned during my research fellowship at CADRE:

1.     Set clear goals when doing research, design, or both.

Throughout my research training, I have been familiar with the term ‘research objectives’ or ‘research aims’. These goals are an important element of research, as they help to guide the research process and become evaluation parameters at the end, to review whether the study has accomplished the set goals. From my weekly discussion with Dr. Upali Nanda at CADRE, I learned that, just like in research, design should also have a clear goal(s). She referred to them as design intent and outcome. Design intent sets a framework of design, whereas outcome informs the implication of design to the users. Design intent and outcome are critical for evaluating design, especially during post-occupancy evaluation. Hence, setting clear goals (i.e., objectives, aims, intentions, outcomes) is critical for research, design, and especially important for design research.

2.     Translate research to create actionable design guidelines.

Translating research into design guidelines is not an easy task. I struggled a lot, especially in creating actionable prompts, so designers could translate them into design strategies appropriate for the context of their projects. I learned that creating design prompts should engage designers instead of only prescribing a checklist to follow. One of the ways is forming the prompts in the form of questions. For instance, to prevent falls and injuries in older adults’ residential environments, the design prompt would be “How to design a barrier-free environment?” While creating a checklist of design strategies could be a great tool for designers, there are times when it is appropriate to allow flexibility in the translation of research findings to design by engaging designers to critically and creatively explore their own approaches to achieve design outcomes.

3.     Make noise about research insights.

As a doctoral student researcher, I have previously published research papers and presented at conferences. While those are valid avenues for sharing research findings, I learned that there are many other ways to share the many things we learned through research, especially those valuable to design practice. ‘Know thy user’ is a mantra that holds true for many aspects of design research, including when sharing research insights. Academics, designers, and other members of society are interested in our research findings from different angles and formats. My job is to diversify the research publications, so different people can learn and implement them in their lives and environments. At CADRE, I learned this lesson from Dr. Upali Nanda, who guided me to create various creative approaches when making noise about research insights. For example, creative reports, one pager, visual design cards, blog posts, and various images and threads to share through social media. Diversifying research communication can reach broader members of society, creating a bigger impact on the users and their environment.

Beyond these, there are more things I learned from my research fellowship at CADRE, which I cannot list one by one. I am grateful for the opportunity, as this is my first experience of becoming a design researcher in practice. Moving forward, I am excited to continue my journey as a design researcher, being in the middle of the design and research cycle, continuing to improve the lives of users, one building at a time.

Written on February 9th, 2023. My last week as a research fellow at CADRE.