Lab methodology
The methodology that I selected in the first week of this course is Lab, because I saw myself as a designer that was constantly struggling with attaining focus in her designs. I often caught myself thinking that I needed to solve as much as possible in order to make it work, which often lead to losing focus, which subsequently lead to presenting a project that had no depth, no tangibility and was not easily understandable. This is why I felt that studying design by means of the laboratory methodology could be beneficial for my development as a professional designer, since it would ‘oblige’ me to determine the utmost importance of the project by attempting to establish the basic relationship.

Now that I have been given the chance to get acquainted with the lab methodology, I consider the aim for framing the research by attaining focus and simplification both a blessing and a curse. A blessing, because it does oblige me to determine what is really important and what I really need to know by translating this into a specific research question. In this way, a tailored experiment and research prototype that is actually capable of answering that specific question can be designed. A curse, because I have learned that framing your research from an extensive topic that could go into 1000+ directions to one tiny variable is a hard thing to accomplish. You need to take on a critical viewpoint almost invariably by constantly reviewing your experiment design and research prototype on whether it is capable of actually answering your research question.

I have experienced that it is very easy to ‘drift off’ into one of the other 1000+ directions within the topic, without even realizing that you have drifted off from your own framing. For me - as a designer - it is very natural to diverge from my path and explore other dimensions amongst a topic. A creative mindset takes over and leads you into an explorative space in which your mind is capable of exploring other paths than the path that you are currently on. When you are doing research activities as part of a design process, this explorative mindset could come very handy. But when you are doing design activities as part of a research process, you must try to discard this mindset for a while, since it is of utmost importance that you stick to the path that you are currently on and base every design decision on this particular path. So for me - as a researcher - I have learned that I need to take on a different mindset when doing research by letting my design decisions be based upon my research instead of letting my research be based upon my designs decisions.

To summarize, appropriating the lab methodology has primarily taught me that a researcher’s mindset and a designer’s mindset differ in essence and that I should be able to recognize these mindsets in my own thinking in order to put one to the side, so to speak. Furthermore, I have learned how to control an environment, how to properly consort with ethics and consent, how to analyse data by determining an applicable test by means of SPSS and how to (and how not to) draw conclusions from the dry results, based on the level of significance and mean rank.

Field methodology
Before attending this course, I have always considered it to be more of a challenge to create a controlled environment than to find a natural environment. Now that I’ve created a controlled environment myself and that I’ve heard my fellow (field) students state that it is very hard to find an environment that is actually natural, my considerations among this topic have changed. For my individual M12 research project, I am currently considering research by means of the field methodology, in which it is very important that I conduct my research in a natural setting. Keeping the environment natural plus being able to collect results, decisively works against each other, because being able to collect results will always culminate in the necessity to add something to the natural environment, which automatically doesn’t make it a natural one anymore.

Showroom methodology
For showroom, I have no experience nor a proper understanding of what it actually entails. In the first week’s assignment of this course, I wrote to be confused, conflicted and interested at the same time concerning this methodology. I felt that showroom was too much on the ‘design’ portion within the spectrum of design research and since I wanted to learn about ‘actual’ research, I discarded this methodology from my choices. Now that I’ve seen the work of my fellow (showroom) students, my considerations towards this methodology have changed. I have learned that research by means of the showroom methodology can result in qualitative findings that are valuable, insightful and capable of reaching a deeper level. Even though doing research by means of this methodology is very serious and contains cautious ethical considerations, it also seems very fun and lively compared to laboratory research, which I have experienced to be rather strict and predetermined. For me, this is something to take into consideration when thinking about my future as a researcher and a designer. I think it is of primary importance to do something that I like doing, something that gives me energy and ambition. Right now, I am questioning whether laboratory research would provide me with these elements. In essence, I am a designer, one that is new to the realm of research. Thinking about my future as a researcher, I feel more drawn toward the methodologies of field and showroom, because they leave me with just a little more room to actually be a designer.