The characteristics of a successful framing process

In design schools and university we need to teach students how to frame their projects in ways that create a significant and new perspective on the problem situation as well as clear direction for the solution. We teach students how to engage in user research, prototyping, conceptualization, business and technology analysis, but often the ability to take information from these different processes and add it together, into a new way of solving the wicked problem, is left for the student to figure out either in a supervised or unsupervised process. Previous research in the framing process has mainly focused on describing the different steps in the process or by describing the type of reasoning that lies behind the framing process. Only a few studies have provided insights into the type of actions that is needed to achieve a successful framing process i.e. searching for the paradox in the data or creating several revisions of the frame. This research project aims at identifying further actions, which can support a successful framing process. The study builds upon indications from a previous study presented at E&PDE 2016, where a small number of students were asked to document their framing process every day during the development of a conceptual design. This study indicated a significant difference between the high-grade students and the low-grade students both when it came to how they formulated the frame, how they revised the frame, their research strategy, their documentation as well as their reflections. This present research project seeks to underline the indications from the previous study. It is based upon 19 students, who documented their framing process during the development of a conceptual design. The present study supports the indications from the previous study and thereby unfold some of the actions that may lead to a successful framing process.