Rigor and relevance in interaction design research is a good find by @nicolasnova from the Near Future Laboratory. As Nicolas describes:

It addresses the problem of ‘disciplinary anxiety’ that is often felt by people in this field and the inherent discussion about what constitutes ‘good research’ in terms of rigor and relevance.

The paper by Daniel Fallman and Erik Stolterman makes the argument “that the only way to discuss and examine rigor and relevance for interaction design research is to do it in relation to the three forms of research and to their particular purposes.”

I had similar problems when writing my PhD on interactivity and play. I had to put in several caveats at the beginning to be sure that it would be read in the right context. Discipline anxiety indeed.

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