Sounding the Fuzzy Edge Between Research Insights, Design Hints and Design Concepts

Within the last three decades, we have witnessed development of many theories on design approaches that render the process more solid and, thus, practiced by non-designer professionals. What is common for all of the design processes is that there is a moment of translation of research insights into design recommendations, and this point, however, has never been very explicit and it is rather seen as a fuzzy edge between switching between two activities. Within this article, we focus on this fuzzy edge reasoning to the extent this point can be demystified and explicit, or when it should remain fuzzy, reflecting on creativity and importance of engaging design professionals within the process. The discussion is based on a case study of students’ works from the UX Design course taught by the authors, where we refer to design tools as tangible concrete support that renders the design process more solid.