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Era Analysis:
Build the history of your field

Every discipline has eras — moments where the questions, methods, and dominant ideas change. This exercise guides you to discover the eras of your field and to locate your thesis within them.

60 min individual work 5 steps guided 3 min final presentation

Define your territory

⏱ 10 min

Before looking for eras, clearly delimit the field you will analyze. The more specific, the more useful the eras you identify will be.

Your name

What is your research field or subfield?E.g.: participatory design, material culture, design history, service design, design and sustainability, speculative design...

What is your thesis question or topic?If you don't have a defined question, describe the topic and the intuition guiding you.

What methods do you plan to use or are you using?

Tip: If your topic crosses multiple fields, choose the one you consider your main field. You can note interdisciplinary tensions in Step 3.

Build the eras of your field

⏱ 20 min

Identify at least 3 eras or paradigmatic moments. Each era represents a change in questions, methods, or dominant ideas. Use the example as a guide for structure — not content.

Example from Dr. Rivera for HCI. Observe the structure: each era has a name, period, paradigm, methods, and questions. You will build the ones for your own field.

1st WAVE · 70s–80s

Paradigm: Internal cognition
Methods: Formal testing
Questions: How to improve usability?

2nd WAVE · 90s–00s

Paradigm: Distributed cognition
Methods: Situated action
Questions: How do groups work?

3rd WAVE · 2010s

Paradigm: Emotion, culture
Methods: Participatory design
Questions: How is technology lived?

4th WAVE · Current

Paradigm: Entanglement
Methods: ANT, OOO
Questions: Who influences whom?

How to identify an era? Look for: a foundational book, a conference that redefined the field, a transformative technology, a theoretical debate, or a social movement that changed the questions.

Attention: Don't force your eras to look like the example. Your field may have 3 eras or 6. They can be simultaneous. What matters is that they are genuine to your discipline.

First Era

The starting point or foundation

Era name

Approximate period

Dominant paradigmWhat was the main belief or approach?

Main methods

Key authors or references

Typical questions

Second Era

The first paradigmatic shift

Era name

Approximate period

Dominant paradigm

Main methods

Key authors or references

Typical questions

Third Era

The current or most recent era

Era name

Approximate period

Dominant paradigm

Main methods

Key authors or references

Typical questions

Locate your research

⏱ 15 min

Locate your thesis within the eras. It may belong to one or be in tension between two.

In which era(s) is your research located and why?

What do you inherit from previous eras?What concepts or methods from previous eras do you use, perhaps without realizing?

Are there tensions between eras in your work?

Reflection: Location within an era is not a value judgment. What matters is being aware of the paradigmatic assumptions you work with.

Project into the future

⏱ 10 min

Eras show past and present — now think about what's coming. A speculative exercise, not predictive.

🔮 Speculative projection

Where is your field heading?What signals of a possible new era do you see?

How does AI impact your specific field?Not in general — in your particular field.

If a "next era" existed, what would it be called?

Synthesis and presentation

⏱ 5 min

Prepare your 3-minute presentation. Choose what's most revealing.

Your 3-minute presentation

Write your synthesisWhat you'll say in 3 minutes, in your own words.

What did you discover that you didn't know before?

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Era Analysis:Build the history of your field

Define your territory

Build the eras of your field

Locate your research

Project into the future

🔮 Speculative projection

Synthesis and presentation

Your 3-minute presentation

Era Analysis:
Build the history of your field