Gapet mellan teori och praktik i pappersprototypande : en studie i diskrepans mellan det ideala arbetssättet akademin förespråkar och hur praktikern faktiskt arbetar

Sammanfattning: This study presents an alternate viewpoint to the strive to overcome the gap between research and practitioners within paper prototyping in interaction design. Earlier research identifies three aspects of this gap, which is: Practitioners being unaware of interaction design methods and theories Practitioners being aware, but choosing not to apply these methods and theories, due to time, budget and constraints of labour Practitioners and research having different perspective on similar design issues Our study was done by carrying out qualitative interviews with interaction designers based on two digital design bureaus. One of the bureaus has an expressed link to research: the other has not. Our hypothesis is that the gap would manifest as a difference in work practice between the two bureaus. Our study shows that the two bureaus have similarities in work practice and that this work practice is based on scientific methods and theories, but is adapted to fit the client and/or the project. We conclude that the overcoming of the gap might not be necessary. Perhaps the nature of the design process with its complexity makes this hard. We advocate a trust in the practitioner’s ability to consider and adapt methods and theories regarded necessary.