The study of design research methodology

The study of design research methodology
Yoram Reich
Department of Solid Mechanics, Materials and Structures
Faculty of Engineering
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv 69978
Israel
[e-mail]
Transaction of the ASME
Journal of Mechanical Design
(in press)

Key words: research evaluation, scienti c methodology, engineering practice, optimization,
Computer-aided design, participatory action research
Abstract

Studies on design research methodology are infrequent, although there is a consensus that more e ort is needed for improving design research quality. Previous calls for exercising better research methodology have been unsuccessful. As numerous studies reveal, there is no single scienti c methodology that is exercised in science or in any other research practice. Rather, research methodologies are socially constructed. Since some constructions are better than others for di erent purposes, it becomes valuable to study di erent methodologies and their in uence on research practice and results. Proposals for such studies are o ered.

1 The state of design research methodology
In many disciplines, research methodology is seldom discussed by researchers. Such neglect may result from several attitudes towards research methodology including indi erence or ignorance. Researchers may be indi erent because their research is well received by the community therefore they need not change or worry about it; or researchers may perceive their practice as science and wish to adopt as their methodology what they perceive to be the methodology used by scientists, henceforth referred to as the received scienti c methodology. Roughly, the received scienti c methodology consists of several steps: (1) observations or preliminary studies, (2) hypothesis formation, (3) hypothesis testing, (4) hypothesis evaluation, and (5) hypothesis acceptance or rejection. It is asserted that results of research discovered by this methodology lead to applied research and

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