Skip to content
Home/ Design, Empathy, Interpretation: Toward Interpretive Design Research
Design, Empathy, Interpretation: Toward Interpretive Design Research

Design, Empathy, Interpretation: Toward Interpretive Design Research

by Koskinen, Ilpo
No customer reviews yet ISBN 9780262546928

A new, empathic approach to design research, drawn from the informed experiences of a leading design research program in Finland.

Design, Empathy, Interpretation tells the story of empathic design, a design research program at Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland, that has developed an interpretive approach to design over the past twenty years. As one of the leaders of the Helsinki group, Ilpo Koskinen draws on his own experiences to offer readers a general intellectual and professional history of design research, and argues for what he calls an interpretive approach. Design, Empathy, Interpretation shows how the group has created connections all across the globe, and how a seemingly soft approach to design research can be useful in both industry and government.

Koskinen follows design research's transformation from questions of usability, in the 1980s, through to the revolution in personal electronics and the "user-centered" turn of the 1990s. Using the research community in Helsinki as a case study, and moving between specific projects and theoretical debates, he offers readers a focused introduction to the major methodological and intellectual challenges--as well as the opportunities--of design research. He argues that all design tasks, however simple or complex, begin with understanding the way humans ascribe meaning, both as individuals and as actors in complex societies. Thus all design research must be interpretive at its core.A new, empathic approach to design research, drawn from the informed experiences of a leading design research program in Finland.

About the author

Product details

Pub dateSep 12, 2023
ISBN-100262546922
ISBN-139780262546928
LanguageEnglish
Last updated 2026-03-20 08:27
$40.73
In stock — ships in 24 hours with free tracking
Delivery by Tuesday, September 8, 2026
Qty
Sign in to Add to Saved list
Free delivery on orders over $35.
15-day returns. Any reason.
Secure checkout. We never store card details.

Readers who bought this also bought

More from History & Criticism
See all
Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession, and How Desire Shapes the World
Raden, Aja
$13.47
Man-Made: How We Designed a World That Leaves Women Out, and How We Can Make It Right
Reuther, Karen Korellis
$22.48
Beauty of Everyday Things
Yanagi, Soetsu
$12.09
Sex and Unisex: Fashion, Feminism, and the Sexual Revolution
Paoletti, Jo B
$21.96
Impossible Arises: Oscar Reutersvärd and His Contemporaries
Mortensen, Chris
$49.39
California Design, 1930-1965
<b>The first comprehensive examination of California's mid-century modern design, generously illustrated.</b><p>In 1951, designer Greta Magnusson Grossman observed that California design was "not a superimposed style, but an answer to present conditions.... It has developed out of our own preferences for living in a modern way." California design influenced the material culture of the entire country, in everything from architecture to fashion. This generously illustrated book, which accompanies a major exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is the first comprehensive examination of California's mid-century modern design. It begins by tracing the origins of a distinctively California modernism in the 1930s by such European émigrés as Richard Neutra, Rudolph Schindler, and Kem Weber&#x3b; it finds other specific design influences and innovations in solid-color commercial ceramics, inspirations from Mexico and Asia, new schools for design training, new concepts about leisure, and the conversion of wartime technologies to peacetime use (exemplified by Charles and Ray Eames's plywood and fiberglass furniture).</p><p>The heart of <i>California Design</i> is the modern California home, famously characterized by open plans conducive to outdoor living. The layouts of modernist homes by Pierre Koenig, Craig Ellwood, and Raphael Soriano, for example, were intended to blur the distinction between indoors and out. Homes were furnished with products from Heath Ceramics, Van Keppel-Green, and Architectural Pottery as well as other, previously unheralded companies and designers. Many objects were designed to be multifunctional: pool and patio furniture that was equally suitable indoors, lighting that was both task and ambient, bookshelves that served as room dividers, and bathing suits that would turn into ensembles appropriate for indoor entertainment.</p><p><i>California Design</i> includes 350 images, most in color, of furniture, ceramics, metalwork, architecture, graphic and industrial design, film, textiles, and fashion, and ten incisive essays that trace the rise of the California design aesthetic.</p><br>The first comprehensive examination of California's mid-century modern design, generously illustrated.<br>Wendy Kaplan is Department Head and Curator of Decorative Arts and Design at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.<br>This book beautifully documents how climate, immigration, and industry influenced California's modern design aesthetic.--<i>Publishers Weekly</i>--<br><p>...[F]ascinating stuff, rich with detail and new discoveries.</p>--<i>NZ House and Garden</i>--<br>
$65.95