APDPro: Research in Design with Dr. Michael Ralph

Dr. Michael Ralph, Vice President & Director of Research with Multistudio, will present "Research as Praxis: How transdisciplinary design includes research interwoven throughout a design firm’s practice." Lunch will be provided.

Conventional concepts of “research” position scholarship as an isolated endeavor of a few people writing among themselves, hidden from the public by esoteric language and expensive pay-to-read barriers. Modern design research should reconceive of research as a living integration of study and practice – a “praxis”. Research within a design praxis brings users, clients, subject-matter experts, and designers together to create an understanding that is fundamentally impossible when we work alone. Dr. Michael C. Ralph works as the Director of Research for Multistudio, a design firm leading in the field of design-research integration in private practice. He will share his journey to leading an industry-embedded research praxis, how his team’s research connects to client needs, and how their on-going research culture sustains a dynamic design practice that produces internationally recognized projects.