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[1]��Last week's lecture presented the idea that science is the most powerful form of evidence.��[2]��My position as a student studying both physics and law makes this an important issue for me and��[3]��one I was thinking about while watching the 'The New Inventors' television program last Tuesday. The two 'inventors' (an odd name considering that, as Smith (2002) says, nobody thinks of things in a vacuum) were accompanied by their marketing people.��[4]��The conversations were quite contrived, but also funny and enlightening. I realised that the marketing people used a certain form of evidence to persuade the viewers (us?) of the value of the inventions. To them, this value was determined solely by whether something could be bought or sold—in other words, whether something was 'marketable'. In contrast, the inventors seemed quite shy and reluctant to use anything more than technical language, almost as if this was the only evidence required – as if no further explanation was needed.

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[5]��This difference forced me to reflect on the aims of this course—how communication skills are not generic but differ according to time and place. Like in the 'Research Methodology' textbook discussed in the first lecture, these communication skills are the result of a form of triangulation, which I have made into the following diagram:��...

Question: Discuss at least two things you learnt or discovered – for example about design or working in groups or the physical world – through participating in the Impromptu Design activities.

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[1] Firstly, the most obvious thing that I discovered was the advantage of working as part of a group. I learned that good teamwork is the key to success in design activities when time and resources are limited. [2] As everyone had their own point of view, many different ideas could be produced, and I found the energy of group participation made me feel more energetic about contributing something.

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[1] Secondly, I discovered that even the simplest things on earth could be turned into something amazing if we put enough creativity and effort into working on them. [3] With the Impromptu Design activities we used some simple materials such as straws, string, and balloons, [4] but were still able to create some 'cool stuff'. [5] I learned that every design has its weaknesses and strengths and working with a group can help discover what they are. We challenged each other's preconceptions about what would and would not work. We could also see the reality of the way changing a design actually affected its performance.

[1] The field notes were written by hand on lined paper. They consisted of jotted notes and mental triggers (personal notes that would remind me of specific things when it came to writing the notes up). [2] I took some direct observational notes recording what I saw where this was relevant to the research questions and, as I was aiming to get a sense of the culture and working environment, I also made researcher inference notes.

[3] I found the note-taking process itself helpful, as it ensured that I listened carefully and decoded information. Not all the information I recorded was relevant but noting what I found informative contributed to my ability to form an overview on re-reading. However, the reliability of jotted notes alone can be questionable. For example, the notes were not a direct transcription of what the subjects said but consisted of pertinent or interesting information.

[3] Rarely did I have time to transcribe a direct quotation, so relied on my own fairly rapid paraphrasing, which risks changing the meaning. Some technical information was difficult to note down accurately. A tape recorder would have been a better, more accurate method. [4] However, one student brought a tape recorder and was asked to switch it off by a participant who was uneasy about her comments being directly recorded. It seems that subjects feel differently about being recorded or photographed (as opposed to observers taking notes), so specific consent should be sought before using these technologies.