"Debrief O’Clock": Planning, Recording, and Making Sense of a Day in the Field in Design Research

Design research is generative, intuitive, experiential, and tactical. Documenting the design research process helps to communicate these decisions, judgements, and values that are embodied in design products. Yet, practices for documenting design research are underreported in the CHI community, particularly for immersive design research field studies. We contribute the “Debrief O’Clock” fieldnote practice for documenting design research field studies, comprising collaborative discussion sessions and the production of written research accounts. We show how the Debrief O’Clock practice emerged in the context of a Digital Community Noticeboard project with a very remote Australian Aboriginal community, and explain three key purposes of Debrief O’Clock as: 1) an early stage data recording and analysis process; 2) a tactical manoeuvre in responsive project planning; and 3) a mechanism for personal debriefing and reflexivity. We conclude with a series of open practical, ethical, and methodological questions to advance the discussion of design research documentation practices.