Design Practice Research Group
Key interests
The research activities of the Design Practice Research Group currently fall into the following key areas:
Emerging technologies within product design
Research into the use of innovative design technologies has included an investigation into the capability of a 'Virtual Workshop' and development of a web-based 3D historical reconstruction, produced for the BBC website to accompany "The Trench" television programme.
Design process improvement
Ways of supporting and enhancing design practice have included academic research projects and direct collaboration with industry. For example, funding from Hewlett Packard (USA) has explored the use of the Tablet PC as a one-stop design tool and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP's) have been undertaken to investigate the generic requirements and methods that can be used to establish and enhance design and development activities within SME's.
The use of design practice as a method of data collection
The Design Practice Research Group has been pioneering the use of design practice as a method of data collection, particularly within the PhD. This enables designers (from recent graduates to established practitioners) to incorporate their own design activity within a programme of research.
User-based product development
For example, the AHRC funded Product Representation through Animation and human motion Data project exploring the use of motion capture data to improve viewer understanding within CAD animations.
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DPRG project case studies