36 3 TheFoundations of Human-Experiential Design discussed (Schuler and Namioka 1993;Nardi1993;Wiberg2001). The social scientist or applied ethnographer has been viewed as an interface between a user andadesigner.Theresearchercollectsprimaryinformationorusessecondaryinfor- mation to get insight about user needs. The researcher translates the information and proposes a document as a way of expressing design criteria. The designer then translates these criteria into concept sketches, scenarios, or early prototypes. The translations may or may not be used during the process for usability testing. Participatory design gives a shared workshop space for a team of people who represent the stakeholders, such as users, designers, marketers, managementpeople and developers, to understand needs and preferences in the development process. Theresults are formulatedas design criteria that reflect user requirements and busi- ness goals. Lists of subjects, problems,issues, and questions are introducedthrough which the facilitator conducts the workshop. The facilitator induces discussion and helps communication among all the stakeholders, ensuring that both planned and unplannedissues are covered (Kaner et al. 2007). In all these cases, the mediator is an essential part of the design process. Design, as an activity, works through the mediator. The mediator in human-experiential design has an essential role in seeking the design aspect of reality, in essence responding to the question of what it means to be human. We will now explore ‘design’ as represented in ordinary design science and research and bring certain keyissues into the open. Issues in Design Science and Research We have discussed oppositions in our view of reality, such as the subjective- objective dichotomy, and introduced the designer’s role as a dynamic catalyst that can integrate opposing elements. Here, we investigate how the designer’s role can be positioned with respect to scientific design research. An alternative framework, whichisneitherobjectivenorsubjective,amoreintegratedblendinDesignScience, is proposed. But without first making clear what we see as the different types of design research, our described understanding of design science will be confusing, since there are a variety of perspectives on design research. Design Knowledge in Design Practice Accordingto Sato (2009,p. 27), two types of design research can be identified. 1. The practice of developing information for a particular design project that includes a number of activities for gathering information such as customer/user needs, social issues, markets, competitive products, and related technologies. This design research focuses on understanding customers’ and users’ needs for developing artefacts/products from the user’s point of view. This is generally called user-centred design research.