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Prof. Dr.-Ing. Lucienne Blessing (030) 314 23341 FAX (030) 314 26481 Stand: 28.06.2004

KONSTRUKTIONSTECHNIK UND ENTWICKLUNGSMETHODIK Prof. Dr.-Ing. Lucienne Blessing Fakultät V - Verkehrs- und Maschinensysteme Technische Universität Berlin

DRM: A Design Research Methodology Prof. Dr.-Ing. Lucienne Blessing; Motivation Although design is one of the fastest growing areas of research, the status of research into its own research methodology is, with a few exceptions, poor. Few publications on design research methodology exist and little is written in research papers about the methodological issues that were involved. Most publications provide little guidance as to how to do design research, leaving it to the individual to find an efficient, effective and rigorous approach. The need to develop a commonly accepted research methodology, as one of the main characteristics of an established area of scientific research, has only in the last few years become an important topic in the research community. For example, a 1999 UK-workshop on future issues for design research, involving industry, funding bodies and academia recommended among others. • To set up a coherent multi-disciplinary framework for design research activity; • To better integrate and evaluate the diverse design support tools and methods; • To design a general experimental and validation methodology for both design

research and design support.

Framework Figure 1 depicts the main stages of the proposed Design Research Methodology (DRM). The main aims of DRM are to help researchers in identifying research areas and projects, and in selecting suitable research methods to address the issues. Furthermore, DRM aims to piece together the various types of research to encourage a reflection on the research approach applied, and to provide pointers to methods in other disciplines that are useful for addressing the variety of aspects involved in engineering design1. DRM emphasises: 1. the need for formulating success as well as measurable criteria; The role of the Criteria Definition stage is:

• to identify the aim that the research is expected to fulfil and the focus of the research project;

1 Ideally, researchers from these disciplines are involved in design research projects, because of their experience in applying the methods of their discipline.

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Prof. Dr.-Ing. Lucienne Blessing (030) 314 23341 FAX (030) 314 26481 Stand: 28.06.2004

KONSTRUKTIONSTECHNIK UND ENTWICKLUNGSMETHODIK Prof. Dr.-Ing. Lucienne Blessing Fakultät V - Verkehrs- und Maschinensysteme Technische Universität Berlin

CRITERIA

DESCRIPTIVE STUDY I

PRESCRIPTIVE STUDY

DESCRIPTIVE STUDY II

Measure

Influences

Methods

Applications

Observation & Analysis

Assumption & Experience

Observation & Analysis

Basic method Results FocusBasic method Results Focus

Figure 1: DRM framework

• to focus Descriptive Study I on finding the factors that contribute to or prohibit success;

• to focus the Prescriptive Study on developing support that address those factors that are likely to have most influence;

• to enable evaluation of the developed support (Descriptive Study II).

2. the importance of descriptive studies to increase our understanding of design in order to inform the development of design support; The role of the Descriptive Study I stage is: • to identify the factors that influence the formulated measurable criteria and

how they influence these; • to provide a basis for the development of support to improve design; • to provide more details that can be used to evaluate developed design support. The result of this stage is a reference model or theory.

3. the importance of developing an impact model (or theory) as the basis for systematic development of design support; The role of the Prescriptive Study stage is: • to develop an impact model or theory, based on the reference model or theory

from the Descriptive Study stage, describing the expected improved situation. Scientific theories are concerned with the how and why of empirical phenomena, they therefore help us explain and predict phenomena of interest. They are not concerned with what should be. This is why in design research, the results of a descriptive study cannot be used directly to develop a way to improve design.

• to develop support in a systematic way; • to evaluate the support with respect to its in-built functionality, consistency,

etc.

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Prof. Dr.-Ing. Lucienne Blessing (030) 314 23341 FAX (030) 314 26481 Stand: 28.06.2004

KONSTRUKTIONSTECHNIK UND ENTWICKLUNGSMETHODIK Prof. Dr.-Ing. Lucienne Blessing Fakultät V - Verkehrs- und Maschinensysteme Technische Universität Berlin

The development of support in research projects usually aims at a proof of concept. Evaluation criteria such as completeness might not apply. A demonstrator or prototype therefore has to be focused on the core contribution of the research project to design research and only contain what is are absolutely necessary to evaluate the support with respect to the formulated criteria.

4. the need for different types of evaluation to assess the developed support, and the need to evaluate more aspects than only functionality.

The role of the Prescriptive Study stage is: • to identify whether the support can be used in the situation for which it is

intended and that is does address the factors it is supposed to address (application evaluation);

• success evaluation to identify whether this indeed contributes to success (see the feedback arrows in figure 2) thus addressing the impact as well as the reference model. This evaluation answers questions about usefulness, implications and side-effects. It is important to address the whole network of factors to enable the identification of the links that cause the net to ‘break down’, in case the design support did not have the desired overall effect..

It cannot be expected that each of the stages of the methodology will be executed in depth in every single project. Resources might be limited or it might not be necessary to do so: where possible available research results should be integrated. DRM is not a purely sequential process: many iterations will take place, and some stages may have to run in parallel. For example, the selection of hardware, software and scope of a demonstrator system (Prescriptive Study), requires that those features of the envisaged system that have to be evaluated, have to be determined (Descriptive Study II). Several variations of the methodology are possible and necessary to suit the focus and constraints of a particular project.

Network of influencing factors A schematic picture of the network of influencing factors involved in design and the focus of the various stages in the methodology is shown in Figure 2.

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Prof. Dr.-Ing. Lucienne Blessing (030) 314 23341 FAX (030) 314 26481 Stand: 28.06.2004

KONSTRUKTIONSTECHNIK UND ENTWICKLUNGSMETHODIK Prof. Dr.-Ing. Lucienne Blessing Fakultät V - Verkehrs- und Maschinensysteme Technische Universität Berlin

Figure 2: The network of influencing factors and the stages of the methodology. Experiences The methodology and the methods that can be used in each of its stages, are based on the analysis of a large number of research projects in engineering design research and on experiences supervising PhD and other research projects. DRM been used in several research projects and taught in the form of a summer school for 3 years. The feedback of these researchers has been helpful in modification and refinement. The main advantages mentioned by its users are is that DRM helps provide a direction to the research at hand, and identify the areas that need addressing and are most likely to be theoretically and practically useful. Conclusions Design is a complex activity, involving artefacts, people, tools, processes, organisations and the environment in which this takes place. Design research aims at increasing our understanding of the phenomena of design in all its complexity and at the development and validation of knowledge, methods and tools to improve the observed situation in design. Design research can be considered to have passed through three overlapping phases: Experiential, Intellectual, and Experimental, but in all phases, a theoretical framework has been largely missing. This fact, together with a fast growing number of researchers, has led to increasing concerns about the efficiency of design research and the effectiveness of its outcome. No overview of research results exists, most results never find their way into practice, either directly or indirectly, and research is often lacking the required rigour. One of the main focus points in the near future has to be the improvement of our research, for which an established methodology is one of the main requirements. A methodology that covers both the study of the phenomenon of design as well as the development of design support. Only then, we might enter the next phase in design research: the theoretical phase.

success criteria

Criteria stage

DS I stage

measurable criteria

PS stage

DS II stage

success criteria

Criteria stage

DS I stage

measurable criteria

PS stage

DS II stage