The concept of studio-based work is central to education as well as practice in traditional design disciplines such as architecture and industrial design. Typical studio culture brings together a variety of forms of knowledge to contrast the increased specialization of many other professional settings, promoting creative, collaborate, multidisciplinary, and interactive activities. The design studio itself is typically quite material; walls are covered with photographs, images, diagrams, sketches, and PostIt-notes. Newspaper scraps, models in various stages of completion, and other seemingly unrelated objects render it slightly chaotic from an outside perspectivebut a highly creative environment for those involved.

During the last three years, I have been involved in building up a new Ph.D. education in industrial design at Umeå Institute of Design, Umeå University, Sweden, with a strong focus on interaction design, creativity, and innovation. In this seminar, I will make a case for also conducting design research as a studio activity, and support this argument with examples of our current projects.

In our experience, the coexistence between design and research activities comes to pose a number of pertinent questions and challenges to design research. Is there a difference between design and research? Of whom is design research in support? Who guarantees the results?

To approach these issues, we have developed a simple triangular model that we find useful as a tool for thinking, both in practical situations as well as when discussing more theoretical and foundational questions in the area of studio-based design research. .