Metasynthesis of Industrial Design Criticism Methods in Iran

In literature, Art and Design, Criticism is one of the most important methods of acquiring and transferring knowledge. Although the subject of design criticism is considered and even approved by the scientific societies of industrial design, but in terms of history, quantity and quality, product design criticism is far behind similar fields (such as architectural design and even graphic design). Therefore, Due to many structural problems, especially inside Iran, this field is in an ambiguous situation, in such a way that not only there are no specialized journals in this field, but even the number of critical articles in reputable journals are very few. This is despite the fact that in other areas of design and art in Iran, criticism has a much better position and many new approaches and methods have been developed and even localized. To get out of this situation, it is necessary to know the field of industrial design criticism in Iran. In this regard, this research examines these central questions: "What has been the evolution of industrial design criticism in Iran?" and “What are the common industrial design criticism methods in Iran?”
In order to get the answer, appropriate methods have been used in different sections. In general, this is a Metasynthesis research, that is, it deals with the secondary analysis of qualitative studies in this field. Therefore, after a systematic review and selection of sources, analytical-content units have been extracted and coded based on four criteria, the desired criteria are: What is criticized? Why is it criticized? How is it criticized? And under what paradigm is it criticized? After coding, the qualitative findings were synthesized and discussed.
As a result of the synthesis and discussions, in the first step of this research, a four-fold classification has been created for the types of industrial design criticism, which are:

Evaluative criticism: It is a criticism that is done with the purpose of evaluating, validating or pricing a product.
Descriptive criticism: It is a review written with the aim of introducing a work or a designer. In this type of criticism, the critic plays the role of an intermediary between the design and the audience. This type of criticism is usually influenced by the Romantic theories of art and tries to discover, interpret and present the genius of the author or the hidden meaning of the work to the audience.
Analytical criticism: At the end of the 19th century, the entry of disciplines such as literature and architecture into universities, together with the general atmosphere of praise for science and faith in positivism, along with the belief in genius, the author's intention and the ultimate meaning of the work, caused criticism to search for meaning, or something hidden in the work, and do this search with the "method of science". Analytical critiques seek to discover the meaning or hidden structures in the work and have a distinct appearance in formalism and even product semiotics.
Interpretive criticism: From the post-modern period, many intellectual and philosophical foundations of modern thought and positivism were rejected. This caused the art and design criticism to be seriously transformed. Criticism's mission is no longer to discover the hidden meaning, but criticism seeks to read the work based on its own methods.

Then, nine types of criticism have been identified in the background of the subject, which are: 1. Advertising texts; 2. Critical Texts of industrial production; 3. Prescriptive texts of the modernism stream; 4. Criticism during design historiography; 5. Independent design criticism based on art criticism; 6. Semantic product design criticism; 7. Product design Criticism in contextual and cultural studies; 8. Design criticism in social networks; 9. Academic critical research.
After classifying design criticism methods and the background of design criticism, focusing on the status of design criticism in Iran, the course of formation of academic criticism is explained and two common criticism methods in the Iranian academic space are identified and introduced, which are: 1. A type of Formalist criticism known as "Gestalt criticism" or "the method of master Modaraei" and 2. Some kind of “product design semiotic”.
The first type has become popular at the beginning of the industrial design master's program in Iran. This method of criticism is a form of “formal analysis” and generally includes two parts: the breakdown of form into visual elements and then, the combination (visual qualities) of the structure and combination of elements. This method is a combination of basic criticisms of visual arts and Gestalt theory of perception, and it is very close to common methods in Iranian graphic design criticism. In general, this type of criticism belongs to the group of analytical criticisms and seeks to identify the form in a quasi-scientific and positivist atmosphere.
The second type has become popular about a decade later and has been influenced by semiotic art and literary criticism methods in Iran. However, there are still serious problems with its theoretical foundations, including that these critiques still do not consider the difference between semiology and semiotics. Or they don't even pay attention to the difference between design criticism and evaluating industrial products. They are also undecided about the function of design criticism education. It is not yet clear whether these trainings seek to educate critics or design practitioners that uses criticism in the practice of design.
At the end, three common research strategies in design criticism research are introduced: 1. Researches with a development strategy: they are researches that introduce and develop the methods of artistic and literary criticism. Their issue is how to use the desired method for design criticism? And how to understand design by those methods? These researches started with semiotics, but today they have expanded a little and entered areas such as hermeneutics or cultural theory. 2. Researches with applied strategy: The second group are articles and researches that use a critical method (as a tool) to identify a style, the works of a designer or a period. Usually, in these articles, an extended volume is devoted to the introduction of the method. 3. Researches with a prescriptive design methodology strategy: The third group are the articles which have tried to expand the design criticism methods to the field of design methodology. In other words, these researches seek to apply and prescribe the methodology of criticism in the practice of design.
industrial design criticism in Iran has both good and bad sides. The good side of it is that this field has made good achievements so far with empty hands without the support that is necessary for the formation of a critical discourse. The downside is that this field has deep structural challenges. In teaching design criticism, there is no comprehensive pilot view, and only a few limited methods are taught without establishing the necessary theoretical foundations. Of course, the scientific community of this field and especially its talented and hardworking students can easily fill these gaps.