- nc266@cam.ac.uk
- +44 1223 748244
Dr Nathan Crilly
University Lecturer
- B.Eng., Mechanical Engineering, University of Southampton, 1999
- Ph.D., Design Research, University of Cambridge, 2005
Dr Nathan Crilly is a Lecturer in Engineering Design at the University of Cambridge. His research interests are in the areas of design, creativity and communication. He employs an interdisciplinary approach to studying how artefacts are developed, the properties they exhibit and the ways in which users respond to them. Nathan is a Fellow in Engineering at Clare College, Cambridge. He is a member of the Design Research Society and The Design Society. He also serves on the International Editorial Board of Design Studies.
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Nathan leads the EDC's Design Practice group which undertakes research into the relationship between designers, artefacts and users. The work often involves borrowing and adapting research methods from different fields. Click the Design Practice logo to meet the group and to learn about their work. |
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From 2013-2018, Nathan is working on his EPSRC Early Career Fellowship project: Interdisciplinary Engineering Approach to Systems (IdEAS). Click the IdEAS logo to learn more about the project and to explore opportunities for participation and collaboration. |
Selected Publications
Some of Nathan's publications are grouped by topic below. Click here for a full publication list ordered by date.
FUNCTION THEORY
CRILLY, N. (2013) Function propagation through nested systems, Design Studies, 34(2), 216-242. Available from Elsevier or draft here
Investigates how to represent the function of a system with respect to the multiple super-systems that it is embedded in. Incorporates aspects of biological and technical function theory and systems theory.
CRILLY, N. (2010) The roles that artefacts play: technical, social and aesthetic functions, Design Studies, 31(4), 311-344. Available from Elsevier or draft here
Explores definitions of 'function' with a view to including not just an artefact's technical roles, but also its non-technical roles. Builds on function theory from engineering design, philosophy of biology, social theory, art theory and archaeology.
DESIGN AS COMMUNICATION
CRILLY, N. (2011) The design stance in user-system interaction, Design Issues, 27(4), 16-29. Available from MIT Press or here
Develops the conceptual foundations for considering how users' design knowledge influences their response to designed systems. Builds on Daniel Dennett's concept of the 'Design Stance' (philosophy of mind).
CRILLY, N. (2011) Do users know what designers are up to? Product experience and the inference of persuasive intentions, International Journal of Design, 5(3), 1-15. Available here
Develops the conceptual and methodological foundations for considering how users' design knowledge influences their response to designed products. Builds on Friestad and Wright's 'Persuasion Knowledge Model' (marketing theory).
ARUK, N., JANSSON-BOYD, C. V. & CRILLY, N. (2011) What users know about the design process: a report on two exploratory studies, Proceedings of Designing Pleasurable Products and Interfaces (DPPI '11), June 22–25, 2011, Milan, Italy. Available here
Reports on two qualitative exploratory studies aimed at understanding the extent to which people’s responses to products are influenced by their ideas about the processes from which those products result.
CRILLY, N., MAIER, A. and CLARKSON, P.J. (2008). Representing artefacts as media: Modelling the relationship between designer intent and consumer experience, International Journal of Design, 2(3), 15-27. Available here
Reviews the various diagrammatic models that can be used to represent design as a process of mediated communication. Builds on communication theory, media theory, literary theory and design theory to develop an integrated model.
CRILLY, N., GOOD, D., MATRAVERS, D. and CLARKSON, P.J. (2008) Design as communication: exploring the validity and utility of relating intention to interpretation, Design Studies, 29 (5), 425-457. Available from Elsevier or draft here
Reviews the various diagrammatic models that can be used to represent design as a process of mediated communication. Discusses the most popular models and suggests how they might be used.
PRODUCT AESTHETICS
SCHOEN, K. & CRILLY, N. (2012) Implicit methods for testing product preference: exploratory studies with the Affective Simon Task, Proceedings of the 8th International Design and Emotion Conference, 11-14 September 2012, Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, London. Available here
Two exploratory studies are reported on, each using psychological techniques from the field of addiction studies. Design preferences are inferred from people's reaction times in moving towards or away from stimuli.
CRILLY, N., MOULTRIE, J. and CLARKSON, P.J. (2009) Shaping things: intended consumer response and the other determinants of product form, Design Studies, 30(3), 224-254. Available from Elsevier or draft here
Builds a framework for the factors that influence product form by analysing interviews with industrial designers. This framework is complementary to that presented in 'Seeing things' (2004).
CRILLY, N. and CLARKSON, P.J. (2006) 'The influence of consumer research on product aesthetics,' in Proceeding of Design 2006 (Croatia), pp. 689-696. Draft available here
Builds a framework of key influences on product form based on interviews with industrial designers and consumer researchers.
CRILLY, N., MOULTRIE, J. and CLARKSON, P.J. (2004) Seeing things: consumer response to the visual domain in product design, Design Studies, 25 (6), 547-577. Available from Elsevier or draft here
Develops a conceptual framework for the varieties of consumer response and the factors that influence those responses. This framework is complementary to that presented in 'Shaping things' (2009).
CREATIVITY IN DESIGN
CRILLY, N. (2010) The structure of design revolutions: Kuhnian paradigm shifts in creative problem solving, Design Issues, 26(1), 54-66. Available from MIT Press or here
Provides an account of creative progress in design projects that includes gradual progress and sudden leaps forward. Structured around Thomas Kuhn's account of scientific developments (History and Philosophy of Science).
QUALITATIVE VISUAL METHODS
CRILLY, N., BLACKWELL, A.F. and CLARKSON, P.J. (2006) Graphic elicitation: using research diagrams as interview stimuli, Qualitative Research, 6 (3), 341-366. Available from SAGE or draft available here
Describes a novel research method that involves presenting interviewees with research diagrams. Places that method in the context of other qualitative approaches, especially visual methods. Republished as...
CRILLY, N., BLACKWELL, A.F. and CLARKSON, P.J. (2012)
Graphic elicitation: using research diagrams as interview stimuli,
SAGE Visual Methods,
Hughes, J. (Ed.),
Vol. 4, Ch. 65, pp. 283–307.
Contact Information
The University of Cambridge,
Department of Engineering,
Trumpington Street,
Cambridge,
CB2 1PZ
UNITED KINGDOM
Phone: +44 1223 748244
Fax: +44 1223 332662
Email: nc266@cam.ac.uk
