ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a study of an architect who lost his sight and continues designing. It investigates where design researchers’ outspoken attention for these aspects comes from and addresses both how human cognition is understood in most design research–i.e. in a predominantly cognitivist way–and how designing is researched, thereby pointing at the, in some respects, ill-articulated statements it comes with. Tracing back where prevailing notions of design and ways of studying it come from in turn raises questions about how design research is produced and how to sort out different research epistemologies and methodologies. The chapter demonstrates research methods might indeed usefully be employed in design research for researchers to stay available to the real-world social and situational factors in design, and to align with more contemporary, situated understandings of cognition. Another ethnographic study allowing for other, alternative articulations of design is the one by Catherine Elsen and colleagues.
