Vocabulary analysis of the archives of design research: Utilizing corpus and text mining techniques

Abstract

Background There have been noticeably fewer studies of design terminology in comparison to the studies of the practical design field of South Korea. The study of design terminology, especially the study that looks into the aspect of the use of vocabulary, corresponds to the foundation of design research. This study examines whether the aspect of the use of vocabulary in the design field of South Korea can be technically analyzed using a text mining technique and whether it will be a meaningful method for the study of design terminology. Methods Having constructed the corpus from 2,214 papers written in Korean published in the Archives of Design Research(Korean Society of Design Science), I intended to grasp the aspect of the use of vocabulary with a text mining technique. In the analyzing process, Python libraries and analytical techniques of frequency and distribution(similarities) were used which are widely utilized in natural language processing. Results We looked into a possibility to find a meaningful vocabulary list and similarity among the vocabulary from the design corpus through text mining. We confirmed that the sufficiently interesting findings from the study are related to the design terminology through a series of results. Conclusions This study is the first case to construct a corpus in the design field and to analyze the aspect of the use of vocabulary with a text mining technique. I expect that this study contributes to the vitalization of the study of design terminology with various viewpoints in the future.