In the studio, we use workbooks
as a method for synthesizing material
generated during fieldwork. We had
spent a fair chunk of time with different
energy-reduction groups across the U.K.,
including tours of infrastructure such
as wind turbines, photovoltaics, and
ground-source heat pumps. We heard
about the ambitions of these groups
and about environmental predictions,
the politics of delivering these projects,
and the relationship between different
constituencies in each setting.
Workbooks allowed us to bring together
documentation of these encounters and
other kinds of material from reviews
of literature and practice. Through the
synthesis of disparate material into a
workbook, as researchers we share and
reflect on perspectives. This in turn
supports the materialization of topics,
and we begin to understand design
options and possibilities. In this way,
making and sharing workbooks is an
With its third biannual conference, RTD 2017 continued to mix intimacy and ambition with
lively, informal discussion of research
through design, enabled by a focus on
the artifacts that come about through
research projects. The National Museum
of Scotland in Edinburgh hosted the
program, which complemented the
organizers’ ambition to see design
outcomes set against the material
archive. In addition to the sessions in
which I took part, I joined other panelists
in a wide-ranging discussion on what the
future of research through design meant
for them. One particularly productive
topic concerned the articulation of
research in commercial settings.
To keep our opening statements
concise, panelists were asked for a single
image. I broke the brief by showing
multiple images, taking a spread from
a book that will soon be published by
Mattering Press depicting the pages
of a workbook that was put together
for ECDC (Energy and Co-Designing
Communities; http://www.ecdc.ac.uk/),
a three-year project funded by Research
Councils UK. Our group at Goldsmith’s
Interaction Research Studio (http://
www.gold.ac.uk/interaction/) was one
of seven research clusters looking at
the effects of a government scheme
in which the Department of Energy
and Climate Change funded about
20 communities across the U.K. to
undertake energy-demand-reduction
measures. The research groups took
a range of approaches in interpreting
what these communities were doing.
Ours was to design a technical
platform, developing the studio’s
methodology, which has been described
as ludic, speculative, and inventive.
Turning People
into Workbooks
The Interactions website ( interactions.acm.org) hosts a stable of bloggers who share
insights and observations on HCI, often challenging current practices. Each issue we’ll
publish selected posts from some of the leading and emerging voices in the field.
BLOG@IX
Tobie Kerridge,
Goldsmiths,
University of London
Workbooks capture insights and ideas that emerged from the initial engagement, often leading to evocative proposals.
