Why Designers Do a PhD?

Abstract

PhD programmes in design seem to be becoming increasingly popular though questions about design research have been raised. In this paper I present a short survey that I did with designers from India, who either have done a PhD in design or are doing one. An online questionnaire was circulated among 34 design researchers. Twenty responded. As expected, the PhD has improved their ability to do research. The impact on ability to do design and impact on salaries seems to be mixed. Among the reasons for starting to do a PhD, opinion was divided about a PhD helping improve job prospects in the industry and even more divided about it being a requirement in academic institutions. But why do designers do a PhD then? The reasons are interest in the area of their PhD, because it will help them grow as a person and because they are interested in research. PhDs have helped people become a better researcher, a better design teacher and also a better person but it has not helped them become a better designer.

Contributors

Anirudha Joshi

Conference

Publication date: March 2010

Publication date (Print): March 2010

Pages: 1-5

Affiliations

IIT Bombay

Mumbai 400076, India

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/IHCI2010.4

Copyright statement: © Anirudha Joshi. Published by BCS Learning and Development Ltd. India HCI 2010/ Interaction Design & International Development 2010, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Mumbai, India

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: India HCI 2010/ Interaction Design & International Development 2010

Conference acronym: IHCI

Conference number:

Conference location: Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Mumbai, India

Conference date: 20 - 24 March 2010

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: India HCI 2010/ Interaction Design & International Development 2010

Product

Product Information: 1477-9358BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/IHCI2010.4

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

Categories

Series title: Electronic Workshops in Computing