Metodologia Para La Investigacion Del Diseño Industrial

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, thestatus 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 todevelop 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 coherentmulti-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 areasand 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 formulatingsuccess 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;

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

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

Basic method

Results
CRITERIA

Focus
Measure

Observation & Analysis

DESCRIPTIVE STUDY I

InfluencesAssumption & 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 thedeveloped 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...