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.
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
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Basic method
Results
Focus
CRITERIA
Measure
Observation &
Analysis
DESCRIPTIVE STUDY I
Influences
Assumption &
Experience
PRESCRIPTIVE STUDY
Methods
Observation &
Analysis
DESCRIPTIVE STUDY II
Applications
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.
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.
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
_____________________________________________________________________________________
success criteria
Criteria stage
measurable criteria
DS I stage
DS II stage
PS stage
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.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Lucienne Blessing (030) 314 23341 FAX (030) 314 26481
Stand: 28.06.2004