ABSTRACT
Design happens in a manifold of disciplines, each with its own culture, objectives, language, and process. However, as opposed to social research, a scientific approach to design research seeks to comprehend practical problems and propose appropriate solutions, instead of seeking ground truths and general laws. The design science research space has so far been dissipated, and this can be addressed by emphasizing the need to bring multiple disciplines together for best-in-class solutions. The logic of design science research is deductive in nature, since it tries to find a valid hypothesis or knowledge that is used to solve an identified problem. The study of theory, people, artifacts, and working knowledge in a research project attests to the presence of science as a crucial element of good design and of good design research. Design Science Research Methodology is a collective term made up of two constituent phrases: “Design Science” and “Research Methodology”. Many contributions hitherto have presented innovation, publishing, and organization of design science research as a paradigm and a methodology in various engineering, social, and design-related fields. Identifying and understanding the real-world problem is the first step for choosing an artifact to construct for a research project in design science. Design science research involves building, investigating, and evaluating innovative artifacts such as constructs, frameworks, models, methods, and system instantiations.
This chapter walks through the discovery of knowledge about design process, design research, design science methodology, and evaluation strategies. Furthermore, the relationship between environment, knowledge, design theory, and artifact is covered in the detailed framework of design science research, which involves cycles of theory testing and possible methods for evaluation. Technical, social, and organizational aspects of artifact development are also discussed.
