DRM, a Design Research Methodology (eBook)

Both authors have been involved in design research for more than two decades, developing a deeper understanding of design and various effective forms of support for designers in the various stages of the design process. Lucienne Blessing has undertaken a variety of empirical design studies to better understand the design process as well as the requirements of methods and tools for design, resulting, e.g. in a support system for design. She has been teaching DRM - the Design Research Methodology described in this book - for ten years in an annual international Summer School on Engineering Design Research for PhD students. She received an award at the International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED97) for her contribution to design science. The second author's research led to the development of computer support for the creation of novel solutions for engineering design problems. For this work he received an award in the Morgans-Grampian UK Manufacturing Industry Awards competition. He has been teaching DRM to research students in India for seven years in an annual one Semester Course on Design Research Methodology for Masters and PhD students. The authors have led research teams, supervised a large number of student design research projects, in particular PhD research, and have been involved in a large number of design projects. The first author is are Co-Editor-in-Chief for Springer’s Research in Engineering Design journal (the second is on the advisory board), and both are Advisory Editors of several other journals including Journal of Engineering Design (Taylor & Francis), AI EDAM (Cambridge University Press), and Advanced Engineering Informatics (Elsevier). The authors regularly chair sessions at conferences and have been members of various advisory boards and organising committees. They frequently review books, papers, dissertations, and grant applications for various countries and are both on the Advisory Board of the Design Society.

Preface 5
Contents 10
1 Introduction 17
1.1 Design 17
1.2 Design Research 18
1.3 Main Issues 22
1.4 Need for a Design Research Methodology 25
1.5 Objectives 26
1.6 Structure of this Book 27
1.7 Main Points 28
2 DRM: A Design Research Methodology 29
2.1 Introduction 29
2.2 Methodological Framework 30
2.3 Types of Research Within the DRM Framework 34
2.4 Representing Existing and Desired Situations 35
2.5 Success Criteria and Measurable Success Criteria 42
2.6 The Main Stages 45
2.7 Comparison with Other Methodologies 54
2.8 Main Points 57
3 Research Clarification 59
3.1 Research Clarification Process 60
3.2 Identifying Overall Topic of Interest 61
3.3 Clarifying Current Understanding and Expectations 67
3.4 Clarifying Criteria, Main Questions and Hypotheses 73
3.5 Selecting Type of Research 76
3.6 Determining Areas of Relevance and Contribution 79
3.7 Formulating Overall Research Plan 83
3.8 General Guidelines on Doing Research 86
3.9 Main Points 88
4 Descriptive Study I: Understanding Design 91
4.1 Schools of Thought 92
4.2 Types of DS-I 96
4.3 DS-I Process Steps 96
4.4 Reviewing Literature 97
4.5 Determining Research Focus 105
4.6 Developing Research Plan for DS-I 118
4.7 Undertaking an Empirical Study 130
4.8 Drawing Overall Conclusions 147
4.9 Main Points 153
5 Prescriptive Study: Developing Design Support 157
5.1 Types of Design Support 158
5.2 Types of PS 159
5.3 A Systematic PS Process 160
5.4 Task Clarification 164
5.5 Conceptualisation 169
5.6 Elaboration 180
5.7 Realisation 183
5.8 Support Evaluation 192
5.9 Main Points 194
6 Descriptive Study II: Evaluating Design Support 197
6.1 Evaluation 198
6.2 Types of DS-II 211
6.3 Systematic DS-II Process 212
6.4 Reviewing Existing Documentation 213
6.5 Determining Evaluation Focus 215
6.6 Developing Evaluation Plan(s) 217
6.7 Undertaking Evaluation 225
6.8 Drawing Overall Conclusions 227
6.9 Main Points 228
7 Writing Up: Publishing Results 231
7.1 Various Forms of Publication and Their Intent 232
7.2 Overall Structure of a Thesis 233
7.3 Approaches to Help Structure a Thesis 235
7.4 Tips on Writing Specific Sections 237
7.5 Writing Papers 243
7.6 General Guidelines 243
7.7 Main Points 245
8 Summary and Conclusions 247
8.1 Experience of Using DRM 247
8.2 Further Research 253
Appendix A Descriptive Study Methods 254
A.1 Paradigms and Assumptions 254
A.2 Reviewing Empirical Studies 258
A.3 Laboratory Versus Industrial Environment 269
A.4 Data-collection Methods 269
A.5 Statistical Analysis 288
Appendix B Prescriptive Study Methods 292
B.1 Product Development Methodologies 292
B.2 Software Development Approaches 297
B.3 User-interface Design 310
B.4 Support Outline: Summarising Scope and Assumptions 316
Appendix C Example Research Projects 320
C.1 Overview of the Examples 320
C.2 A Process-based Approach to Computer-supported Engineering Design 322
C.3 A Program for Computational Synthesis and Conceptual Design Support 333
C.4 Teamwork in Engineering Design 343
C.5 Measuring Conceptual Design Process Performance in Mechanical Engineering: A Question-based Approach 354
C.6 Design for Quality 366
C.7 Multi-disciplinary Design Problems 376
C.8 Design for Reliability in Mechanical Systems 386
References 397
Index 407