A personal perspective on research through design

The article highlights conversations at the intersection of design methods and social studies of echnology. A design intervention looks like a subjective statement by its author, and even if it has been empirically informed and verified, it does not contribute to an understanding of social phenomena. In traditional research, when there is interaction between the subject and the object, it is controlled, as in the case of physicists interacting with matter, or it is restrained, as in the case of ethnographers unavoidably interacting with the objects of observation during a field visit. Designing something is obviously incompatible with an epistemology of separation because its purpose is always to change?by design, so to speak?but it is also incompatible with controlled interaction because it is too complex, uncontrolled, and specific.