A Design Research Methodology

The initial motivator for the development of DRM, a Design Research Methodology, and the subsequent writing of this book was our frustration about the lack of a common terminology, benchmarked research methods, and above all, a common research methodology in design. A shared view of the goals and framework for doing design research was missing. Design is a multidisciplinary activity occurring in multiple application areas and involving multiple stakeholders. As a consequence, design research emerges in a variety of disciplines for a variety of applications with a variety of subjects. This makes it particularly difficult to review its literature, relate various pieces of work, find common ground, and validate and share results that are so essential for sustained progress in a research community. Above all, design research needs to be successful not only in an academic sense, but also in a practical sense. How could we help the community develop knowledge that is both academically and practically worthwhile? Each of us had our individual ideas of how this situation could be improved. Lucienne Blessing, while finishing her thesis that involved studying and improving the design process, developed valuable insights about the importance and relationship of empirical studies in developing and evaluating these improvements. Amaresh Chakrabarti, while finishing his thesis on developing and evaluating computational tools for improving products, had developed valuable insights about integrating and improving the processes of building and evaluating tools.

How the tools of design research can involve designers more directly with objects, products and services they design; from human-centered research methods to formal experimentation, process models, and application to real world design problems. The tools of design research, writes Brenda Laurel, will allow designers "to claim and direct the power of their profession." Often neglected in the various curricula of design schools, the new models of design research described in this book help designers to investigate people, form, and process in ways that can make their work more potent and more delightful. "At the very least," Peter Lunenfeld writes in the preface, "design research saves us from reinventing the wheel. At its best, a lively research methodology can reinvigorate the passion that so often fades after designers join the profession." The goal of the book is to introduce designers to the many research tools that can be used to inform design as well as to ideas about how and when to deploy them effectively. The chapter authors come from diverse institutions and enterprises, including Stanford University, MIT, Intel, Maxis, Studio Anybody, Sweden's HUMlab, and Big Blue Dot. Each has something to say about how designers make themselves better at what they do through research, and illustrates it with real world examples—case studies, anecdotes, and images. Topics of this multi-voice conversation include qualitative and quantitative methods, performance ethnography and design improvisation, trend research, cultural diversity, formal and structural research practice, tactical discussions of design research process, and case studies drawn from areas as unique as computer games, museum information systems, and movies. Interspersed throughout the book are one-page "demos," snapshots of the design research experience. Design Research charts the paths from research methods to research findings to design principles to design results and demonstrates the transformation of theory into a richly satisfying and more reliably successful practice.

The Future of Design Methodology gives a holistic overview of perspectives for design methodology, addresses trends for developing a powerful methodical support for design practice and provides a starting point for future design research. The chapters are written by leading scientists from around the world, who have great expertise in design methodology, as well as the farsightedness needed to develop design methodology further. The Future of Design Methodology is a detailed contribution to consolidated design methodology and design research. Instead of articulating the views of one scientist, it provides a comprehensive collection of perspectives and visions. The editor highlights the substantial deficiencies and problems of the current design methodology and summarizes the authors’ findings to draw future-oriented conclusions. The comprehensive overview of the status of design methodology given in The Future of Design Methodology will help enhance the individual scientific development of junior researchers, while the authoritative perspectives on future design methodology will challenge the views of experts. It is suitable for readers working in a wide range of design fields, such as design methodology, engineering design and industrial design.

Heavily grounded in helping students make the best choices for their projects, this book explores how to develop and work with theory, research questions, and method selection to build solid, logical proposals and move from research concepts to fully realized designs. Rather than rushing initial planning stages or reverse engineering questions from preferred methods, it encourages students to challenge unconscious biases around method selection and analysis and provides step-by-step guidance on choosing a method that is in-line with the question being explored. Focused on the role of the researcher within research design, it stresses the need to consider the theoretical underpinnings of research and not just practical issues when designing a project. It provides a sophisticated toolkit to understand: - The critical issues associated with both qualitative and quantitative methods - The approach that works best for specific research questions - How design choices can affect practice. Perfect for upper undergraduate and postgraduate students, this book will instil confidence and good decision making to ensure constructively informed design and practice.

"Universal Methods of Design is an immensely useful survey of research and design methods used by today's top practitioners, and will serve as a crucial reference for any designer grappling with really big problems. This book has a place on every designer's bookshelf, including yours!" —David Sherwin, Principal Designer at frog and author of Creative Workshop: 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills "Universal Methods of Design is a landmark method book for the field of design. This tidy text compiles and summarizes 100 of the most widely applicable and effective methods of design—research, analysis, and ideation—the methods that every graduate of a design program should know, and every professional designer should employ. Methods are concisely presented, accompanied by information about the origin of the technique, key research supporting the method, and visual examples. Want to know about Card Sorting, or the Elito Method? What about Think-Aloud Protocols? This book has them all and more in readily digestible form. The authors have taken away our excuse for not using the right method for the job, and in so doing have elevated its readers and the field of design. UMOD is an essential resource for designers of all levels and specializations, and should be one of the go-to reference tools found in every designer’s toolbox." —William Lidwell, author of Universal Principles of Design, Lecturer of Industrial Design, University of Houston This comprehensive reference provides a thorough and critical presentation of 100 research methods, synthesis/analysis techniques, and research deliverables for human centered design, delivered in a concise and accessible format perfect for designers, educators, and students. Whether research is already an integral part of a practice or curriculum, or whether it has been unfortunately avoided due to perceived limitations of time, knowledge, or resources, Universal Methods of Design serves as an invaluable compendium of methods that can be easily referenced and utilized by cross-disciplinary teams in nearly any design project. This essential guide: - Dismantles the myth that user research methods are complicated, expensive, and time-consuming - Creates a shared meaning for cross-disciplinary design teams - Illustrates methods with compelling visualizations and case studies - Characterizes each method at a glance - Indicates when methods are best employed to help prioritize appropriate design research strategies Universal Methods of Design distills each method down to its most powerful essence, in a format that will help design teams select and implement the most credible research methods best suited to their design culture within the constraints of their projects.

Design research plays a significant role in the creation of better quality products. This unique book provides a systematic design research methodology, and a stepwise approach as to how research can be undertaken to answer specific questions in design. It also ties together specific research methods with a range of different design research problems. The theory is supplemented by many practical examples and detailed case studies written by eminent design researchers.

This book provides guidelines for practicing design science in the fields of information systems and software engineering research. A design process usually iterates over two activities: first designing an artifact that improves something for stakeholders and subsequently empirically investigating the performance of that artifact in its context. This “validation in context” is a key feature of the book - since an artifact is designed for a context, it should also be validated in this context. The book is divided into five parts. Part I discusses the fundamental nature of design science and its artifacts, as well as related design research questions and goals. Part II deals with the design cycle, i.e. the creation, design and validation of artifacts based on requirements and stakeholder goals. To elaborate this further, Part III presents the role of conceptual frameworks and theories in design science. Part IV continues with the empirical cycle to investigate artifacts in context, and presents the different elements of research problem analysis, research setup and data analysis. Finally, Part V deals with the practical application of the empirical cycle by presenting in detail various research methods, including observational case studies, case-based and sample-based experiments and technical action research. These main sections are complemented by two generic checklists, one for the design cycle and one for the empirical cycle. The book is written for students as well as academic and industrial researchers in software engineering or information systems. It provides guidelines on how to effectively structure research goals, how to analyze research problems concerning design goals and knowledge questions, how to validate artifact designs and how to empirically investigate artifacts in context – and finally how to present the results of the design cycle as a whole.

Research Methodology: From Philosophy of Science to Research Design distinguishes itself from many other works devoted to research methodology and the philosophy of science in its integrated approach towards scientific research, which is regarded as the scientific project on all levels from philosophy of science to research design. This work studie