Designed artefacts for health and wellbeing presuppose an actual impact on people’s health or wellbeing; similarly, proposed improvements to design processes presuppose improved design processes. Unfortunately, design(research)ers often do not evaluate the efficacy of their designed artefacts and processes. This paper argues that it is essential to evaluate the assumed effects of designs and processes, to avoid common pitfalls and encourage the growth of knowledge, as a responsibility towards the users of our designs, and to enable an exchange with adjacent fields. To encourage doing so, the paper offers recommendations for evaluation strategies that fit designerly methods.

I presented this paper at the #EAD2019 conference, held in Dundee in April 2019. You can read the full paper here. Slides from the presentation are here. The paper has been published in the Design Journal and is available online from https://doi.org/10.1080/14606925.2019.1595844

Please cite as:
Hermsen, S. (2019). Designers should evaluate their work. You say those are scissors you are running with, but do they even cut? The Design Journal, 22(sup1), 2235-2238. doi:10.1080/14606925.2019.1595844.