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specific ideas as to how it may be done. To understand them, the systems had to be constructed, and their behavior had to be observed.

The previous example illustrates the basic idea behind my view on the unique value of practice as a knowledge building enterprise. As a practitioner you will need to understand the domain you are working in, learn about ne w tools and processes, and understand existing solutions. Some of this knowledge will be available in existing theories and guidelines. However, lots of knowledge that you may need in your work may be unknown to you. This is especially true for new domains that have not been studied extensively. Consequently, you will often need to learn many new things throughout your projects.

Working on a concrete activity, es-
pecially within complex projects, pro-
vides a rich context for learning. In my
view, the main reason for the capacity
of practitioners to rapidly obtain new
understandings lies in the ability of
practitioners to combine existing ex-
plicit knowledge with their tacit and
intuitive knowledge and skills. A prac-
tical activity can set in motion our intu-
itive and tacit knowledge accumulated
through years of research and experi-
ence. Our intuition, ingenuity, and tac-
it skills can play an important role in
understanding and setting problems
from messy and ill-defined situations.

By engaging in practice, we often can better understand ill-defined and wicked real-world problems. Similarly, through design we can better understand users’ needs, as our users often cannot precisely explain to us what they want unless we present them with some version of a design solution [ 5].

HOW TO DO RESEARCH
IN PRACTICE

The knowledge you acquire through
practice is of limited value if your learn-
ing process is not disciplined. Our ex-
periences differ a lot, and our abilities
to communicate and understand it are
also different. Practice-based research
is very limited if it is not accompanied
with the following features: prepared
mind, systematic documentation, gener-
alization, evaluation, and iterations.
Prepared mind. Louis Pasteur fa-
mously noted “chance only favors the
mind which is prepared”. He was speak-
ing of Danish physicist Oersted and the
almost “accidental” way in which he
discovered the basic principles of elec-
tromagnetism. Pasteur elaborated that
it is not during accidental moments
that an actual discovery occurs: The
scientist must be able, with prepared
mind, to interpret the accidental obser-
vation and situate the new phenomena
within the existing work. Similarly, our
learning in practice is limited without
awareness about the context and exist-
ing solutions. We may build the wrong
solution, or waste our time by “rein-
venting the wheel,” instead of exploit-
ing existing work, available theories,
and empirical results. Brooks similarly
argued practitioners should know ex-
emplars of their craft, their strengths,
and their weaknesses, concluding that
originality is no excuse for ignorance
[ 6]. Furthermore, if we are not able to
connect our observations to a broader
context and existing work we may not
be able to judge the relevance and im-
portance of our observations and we
may miss the opportunity to make
some important discovery.
Systematic documentation. To sup-
port research, your practical experi-
ences should be documented. We keep
forgetting things, and our memory
changes over time. Keeping system-
atic documentation also enables retro-
spective analyses and discovery of new
findings even after our projects finish.
It is important to document all impor-
tant decisions, describing the limita-
tions and failings of the design, as well
as the successes, both in implementa-
tion and usage. Of particular value is
documenting the rationale for our de-
of women believe
tech needs more
female role models.
of women believe young women need
more inspiration from parents and
teachers to be successful in the field.

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