Abstract:

A tension exists between traditional academic research standards and the desire of design-based thinkers (and researchers) to deliver a well-designed document that not only delivers sound findings, but also meets their own need to produce work that is aesthetically pleasing and creatively stimulating. Traditional academic research specifications for universities and journals govern the formatting with regards to font choices, sizes, layout, styling and imagery to help maintain high standards of quality, professionalism and consistency in scholarly communication. From an outside-in perspective research follows a systematic, linear process which is not seen as a creative one although much research utilises a design-thinking approach. Design-based thinkers (and researchers), driven by their creative inclinations, prefer to use their design abilities to weave narratives through the manipulation of fonts, titles, layout and styling along with appropriate imagery or other creative treatments. Design-based thinkers (and potential researchers) experience frustration when faced with formatting limitations and the perceived linear processes involved in the production of research output. This autoethnographic study is a critical reflection on a designer’s academic research journey, and their lived experience of bending the rules around standardised formatting and linear research expectations. As a student, lecturer and emerging researcher, this paper explores the creative limitations in place for research documents and reviews the experiences of fellow researchers, lecturers and students at a private higher education institution. In their own research efforts, as a design-based thinker, the researcher has used a non-linear approaches like visual mapping and incorporated styled and designed elements within their research and has found the response to be positive, even if a little hesitant from academics initially. The lived experience of the inquirer underscores the notion that many of the perceived constraints and limitations about research output exist rather as guidelines or suggestions and not strict rules. The process of performing research may involve creative thinking and a creative approach to allow for meaningful sense-making and meaning creation. A design-based thinker may find their creative needs met by the research process if approached in a non-linear fashion such as design thinking. Bending the rules can help the author to stand out as novel or unique in their approach. The contribution of this study is to encourage researchers who are more design-inclined to challenge the limitations of the styling restrictions of journals and academic institutions where necessary to deliver their narrative in a manner that will more convincingly share their ideas. Bending of the rules requires a considered approach to weigh up the benefits and implications of doing so – hence bending rules rather than breaking them outright. Researchers can utilise their design abilities when researching, analysing, writing and crafting academic papers and dissertations and when sharing their output by challenging the perceived linear approach to research and allowing for more creative processes and thinking to come to the fore. Creatively presented research output can not only communicate ideas and thinking to an audience better, but it could potentially engage and encourage an entirely new audience.

Keywords:

Making research visual, designing research, dissertation design, autoethnography, creative limitations, design thinking, creative research process.