ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the term design research for the general methodological framework. It explores the issues of terminology and the connotations that come with the terms development, developmental, design based research and design experiment. The chapter focuses on the history in the United States and the Netherlands, where design research has been discussed most extensively, but also point to influences from Russian psychology. It also focuses on an historical account in the US, with influences from multiple sources, and the Dutch history, because it is much less accessible. The Dutch history points to reasons for design research other than ecological validity, which was one of the primary motives found in the American history of design research. The chapter explores how design research emerged in the Netherlands, in particular at what is now called the Freudenthal Institute at Utrecht University.
