Design Research Methodology - Critical Review

27.4.21 - 23.5.21 (week 5- week 8)

Sajiya Mir (0340836)

Design Research Methodology

Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media

Critical Review 

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Lecture

Week 5: Critical Review 

- The critical review is an explicit type of critical writing that requires you to evaluate aspects of a literary text, a research article, or an argument. 

- The purpose of a critical review is to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the content of an article. It provides description and interpretation that allow readers to assess the value of the article. This is important it will allow you to know whether the article is suitable for your own research. 

- To begin your critical review, search for relevant research articles from sources such as library databases. To know whether an article is relevant or not, look at the title and the keywords. 

To write a critical review, you need to have: 

1.  Full reference in APA format.
2.  Summarise the article in one paragraph. 
3.  Critique and evaluation (2-3 pages, 12pt, 1.5 spacing) 
4.  Conclusion
5.  Number the critical review (1-5)

How to study the article: 

• Structure:
• What type of text is it? (primary and secondary source)
• What are the different sections, and how do they fit together? Is it easy to read?
• Are there any sections that effective or ineffective? 
• Methodology: 
• Is the research quantitative or qualitative?
• Does the methodology have any weaknesses?
• How does the design of the study address the hypothesis/ research problem?
• Reasons/ Evidence:
• What source does the author use? (interviews, peer-reviewed, government reports)
• What type of reasonings are employed (inductive or deductive)
• What type of evidence is provided?
• Are there any gaps in the reasoning or evidence? 
• Conclusions:
• does the data support the conclusions? Are there other interpretations plausible?
• What does the work contribute to the field?
• Logic:
• What assumption does the author make?
• Does the author account for all the data, or are some left out?
• What alternative perspectives remain unconsidered? 

Week 6: Qualitative & Quantitative

Quantitative research looks at the numbers and percentages of research. It's useful when collecting and documenting large quantities of information. Good for collecting research for a particle's target audience and backing it up with factual claims. It can be used for primary and secondary research. However, one downside of quantitative is that there are no people's opinions, thoughts, or feelings. 

Qualitative research gives studies on the personal opinions of people and details on the topic. It allows information when understanding your target audiences and clients' needs. 

Primary research is research you have gone out and done yourself. It can be interviews, observations, questionnaires, surveys, etc. This a reliable source and well-documented evidence. however, it can be very time-consuming and be limited to the research you can acquire. 

Secondary research is research completed by someone else. It could be books, articles, journals, etc. However, the problem with this is that the sources may not be very reliable. 

Audience Research such as audience profiling, demographics, consumer behaviors, consumer attitude, and audience awareness. The pros for this are to help designers understand and communicate effectively with their target audience. However the cons are that research may not be relevant to your product, it can affect your creative process as there are no limitations. 

Market Research such as the products market, competition, and advertising placement. It helps in seeing your demographic and seeing how big the target audience is. 

Week 7: Qualitative & Quantitative

Creative Research Methods:

1. Art-based research for example visual arts, performance, and textile arts.
2. Research using technology for example research using social media, computers, apps, etc.
3. Mixed method where its qualitative and quantitative research.
4. Transformative research for example participatory research. 

Primary research, in this case, can be done with interviews, surveys, questionnaires, and focus groups. 

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Instructions

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Critical Review 

 Week 5: 

Wednesday, April 27, 2021

This week we had to find five articles for our critical review. Then during class, she suggested we make sure all the articles journal articles and not thesis or blogs. Finally, she gave us some feedback on our proposal. 

 Week 6: 

Wednesday, May 5, 2021

This week we had completed two of our five Critical reviews and during the consultation session, Ms. Hayati looked over our work and gave us feedback.

 

Critical Review #1 

Critical Review #2

 Week 7: 

Wednesday, May 12, 2021
This week we continued working on our five critical reviews. Ms. Hayati checked the reviews we had completed and gave up feedback. 

Critical Review #3

Critical Review #4

Week 8:
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
This week we had to finish our critical reviews and combine them all into one document. The papers were due on the 23rd of May. 

Critical Review #5

Final Critical Review Draft

Sunday, May 23, 2021

Final Critical Review 

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Feedback

[Week 5]:

• Proposal feedback: The design aspect of your proposal can improve a bit more. Try to have it relate to your topic of body diversity. 

• For the references, the year of publication is a bit of a concern. Try to find maybe an edited or new version of the same paper.

[Week 6]:

• Critical review: Make sure to follow the proper APA 7th edition citations. 

• Explain how the authors use their resources to support their argument better. 

• Take the conclusion or analysis finding to your summary.

[Week 7]:

• Critical review: Try to explain more the process of data collection. 

• Critical review: Since it is a qualitative approach, it is accepted to have a smaller scale. Try to find whether the author explains why twelve was chosen.

• Critical review: Describe the author analysis approach that was undertaken to evaluate the characters?