Understanding the value of artistic tools such as visual concept maps in design and education research

Art and design creative techniques are increasingly used in educational and social sciences research as means to complement narrative qualitative research methodologies. Less known is the means by which art and design students may use collage, concept mapping or other artful visual tools to understand narrative in qualitative research. This article aims to demonstrate how artful methods can be combined with more traditional qualitative methodologies to uncover meaning in research texts during data analysis. The authors aim to show how both the phenomenon used and the method applied to data analysis offers a creative way to allow for meaning to emerge, while situating the research firmly in a phenomenological perspective of lived experience of the researcher through a collaborative conversation.