The research network DesignDialog is working towards creating an understanding of the use of design in everyday life. One of the aims for the network is to develop knowledge that can contribute to improve the conditions for a constructive dialogue concerning design, so that professionals, lay people and the decisive authorities can contribute to innovation, and participate in democratic processes.

Research develops knowledge, and knowledge is power. Therefore, studies of education within design, from compulsory education to doctoral degrees, are central to the network. At the same time this focus demands studies of several areas from several points of departure, as we learn in other arenas than school. Our knowledge and values are also developed through the communities of practice that we inhabit daily. To illuminate what inhibits and what furthers constructive dialogue of design and architecture, it is also necessary to study the content of design processes in private corporations and public offices in addition to the public debate, as we know it from i.e. newspapers, journals and TV.

To prevent a gap between democratic intentions and experienced reality in a system where decisions are not made on the basis of words and numbers alone, but on the basis of visual representations, it is important to focus on what the basic knowledge is in tomorrows education.