posted on 2018-04-16, 14:22authored byJesvin (School of Art Design & Media) Puay-Hwa Yeo, Koh. Caroline, Stefanie (National Institute of Education Nanyang Technological University Singapore) Yen-Leng Chye
This article adopts discursive phenomenography as a viable qualitative approach
to identify the different conceptions that visual communication undergraduate
students have of design research. Phenomenographic method was described by
Limberg (1999) as an exploration of the world’s phenomena through the different
encounters and comprehensions of people and societies. The phenomenographic
findings map four qualitatively different ways, namely, Conception A: Process-focused
Experience; Conception B: Knowledge and Skills-focused Experience; Conception C:
Socially-focused Experience and Conception D: Self Awareness-focused Experience. The
research results established an early step in understanding one aspect of the collective
conceptions of design research in visual communication design. The findings are of
interest to design educators who seek to know more about design research in order to
equip design students with the relevant skills contributing to the field of design.