Inside the Designer: Understanding imagining in spatial design Inside the Designer | Page 10

Marisha McAuliffe
faced by a specific community or group (Glaser, 1992), especially a
qualitative issue situated as an integrated problem requiring an
explorative, abductive-inductive approach for the generation of new
insights. Philosophically, then, the research is situated in the
interpretive paradigm grounded more specifically in a constructivist
context concerned with how the complexities of the socio-cultural
world are experienced, interpreted and understood at a particular
point in time (Mills, Bonner & Francis, 2006a). Subsequently, what
underpins this research is a strong congruence between a personal
philosophical position, the stated aims of the research, and the
methodological approach.
As explained in detail in Chapter 4, the research process developed
iteratively over several years. Initially, the study commenced with a
focus on student designing and their experience of designing in the
early stages of the process. When very little emerged from the data
analysis from the first exploratory stage, the study turned to
postgraduate students. While this produced more data and
understanding about the experience of designing, again it was limited
and severely constrained by the students’ little or no practice
experience. At this point, the decision was made to involve
experienced practicing architects and interior designers. During this
stage data were collected via questionnaire from 54 practicing
designers and 10 follow up interviews. In parallel with this process,
data were also collected from design methodological literature and
presence literature at various points across these stages. Unlike
traditional research where the literature review occurs chiefly at the
beginning to establish a context, in this study, literature and existing
theory were accessed when directed to as a result of previous analysis
of literature and empirical data. In accordance with Grounded Theory
methodology, the process was informed by the principles of
theoretical sampling and constant comparative analysis to clarify and
refine emerging themes until they were ‘saturated’. As referenced by
Birks and Mills (2011):
In Grounded Theory research, the aim is to build theory
through the construction of categories directly from the data.
Through ‘theory-directed’ sampling, you are able to examine
concepts from various angles and question their meaning for
your developing theory (Strauss, 1987, p. 276 in Birks & Mills,
2011, p. 69).
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