Design research and visual analysis

Design research has been built on the method and contextual paradigms that have been the traditions of a range of other research areas. This situation creates distinct issues and challenges for the researcher and the research community. Particularly in methods available for the visual analysis of product shape, it was sensed that the existing ones were not enough to provide information that was significant to design concerns. For the analysis of artefacts, there is a plethora of methods readily available. However it is our experience that, as borrowed investigative tools, these do not supply design-relevant information on consumer products. We discuss the need for a new way that effectively considers products as design artefacts while focusing exclusively on their outward appearance.