Zimmerman, Forlizzi & Evenson (2007), Research through Design as a Method for Interaction Design Research in HCI · DOI 10.1145/1240624.1240704
What it is for
Knowledge produced by designing and building, where the iterative process — the decisions, the things that failed, the reasoning at each fork — is itself the finding. It is what legitimises a thesis whose central evidence is a made object rather than a study.
Why it is the structural tool here
It is the only method that lets Projects count as research rather than illustration. Without it I am someone who makes installations and separately writes about installations.
The condition is strict, and it is where practice-based theses usually fail: the documentation has to be produced during the process, not reconstructed afterwards. A design rationale written after the fact is not evidence, it is a story about evidence.
Where it gets used
The ZHdK Immersive Arts Space prototype, autumn 2026. That is the research-through-design component of the thesis and the only window for it.
Which sets a hard requirement: the decision log has to start on day one of that residency, and it has to be written the day a decision is made.