Designing Theory in Communication

Abstract

Within communication design, theory is in the process of formation. Within the profession, attitudes toward theorizing vary from an intuitionist rejection of theories to humanist positions, observational empiricisms and scientific reductive approaches. This heterogeneity reflects the many intellectual influences on design from the humanities, social sciences and hard sciences and engineering. We can even burrow to the philosophical foundations — Cartesian rationalism, positivism, constructivism — and their ontological and epistemological positions. This paper presents a theoretical position with regard to communication design research and summarizes the findings of two experiments based on this theoretical construct. The theory points the way to rigorous and useful research for communication design in the future.