Abstract
In this chapter I characterise design theories and models of design, and analyse their testing. Using resources from the philosophy of natural science, I argue that testing design theories and models by falsification can improve the scientific status of design research. First, design theories and models are compared to their scientific counterparts and grouped by their descriptive, demarcating and prescriptive aims. Second, the testing of design theories and models is considered in relation to two deficiencies that are by design researchers lowering the scientific status of the discipline: a lack of generally accepted and efficient research methods for testing design theories and models, and a fragmentation in separate research strands. It is shown that both deficiencies can be related to the view in design research that testing consists of the validation of design theories and models. Third, I argue that testing by falsification can address the deficiencies: naïve Popperian falsification provides effective means for testing design theories and models; sophisticated falsification as described by Lakatos enables comparing design theories and models from different research strands.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
In DRM these stages are called, respectively, Research Clarification, Descriptive Study I, Prescriptive Study and Descriptive Study II. These stages comprise more tasks than described here; in the Descriptive Study II-stage, for instance, it is also evaluated whether designers can effectively manipulate the planned support for improving design practices [23].
- 2.
This argument also holds if it is assumed that the observations that design researchers collect about design practices are interpreted as judgements of the designers carrying out the practices. The observations then concern social facts and are depending on social processes among designers. But these observations are not depending on social processes among the design researchers engaged in evaluating design theories and models. Hence, the observations can still be taken as objective facts, allowing an objective evaluation of design theories and models by only these observations, either by validation or falsification. On a social-constructivist view the judgements of designers about their design practices are also depending on the social processes taking place between the evaluating design researchers, undermining validation research methods as envisaged by, e.g., Blessing and Chakrabarti [23].
- 3.
I describe only a few elements of Lakatos’ [30] analysis of falsification and ignore others. Lakatos, for instance, does not talk about observational statements simpliciter, but about ‘observational statements’, where the parentheses are reminders that observations in science typically depend on scientific theory.
References
Ruse M (1995) Theory. In: Honderich T (ed) The oxford companion to philosophy. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 870–871
Simon HA (1996) The sciences of the artificial, 3rd edn. MIT Press, Cambridge
Gero JS (1990) Design prototypes: a knowledge representation schema for design. AI Mag 11(4):26–36
Pahl G, Beitz W, Feldhusen J, Grote KH (2007) Engineering design: a systematic approach, 3rd edn. Springer, London
McDonough W, Braungart M (2002) Cradle to cradle: remaking the way we make things. North Point Press, New York
Lawson B, Dorst K (2009) Design expertise. Architectural Press, Oxford
Verganti R (2009) Design driven innovation: changing the rules of competition by radically innovating what things mean. Harvard Business Press, Boston
Akao Y (ed) (1990) Quality function deployment: integrating customer requirements into product design. Productivity Press, New York
Hatchuel A, Weil B (2009) C-K design theory: an advanced formulation. Res Eng Des 19:181–192
Vermaas PE (2010) Beyond expert design thinking: on general, descriptive and prescriptive models. In: Dorst K, Stewart S, Staudinger I, Paton B, Dong A (eds) Proceedings of the 8th design thinking research symposium (DTRS8) Sydney, 19–20 Oct 2010. DAB documents, Sydney, pp 405–413
Frigg R, Hartmann S (2012) Models in science. In: Zalta EN (ed) The stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Fall 2012 Edition). http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2012/entries/models-science
Boon M, Knuuttila T (2009) Models as epistemic tools in engineering sciences. In: Meijers AWM (ed) Philosophy of technology and engineering sciences. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 693–726
Morgan M, Morrison M (1999) Models as mediators: perspectives on natural and social science. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Meijers AWM (ed) (2009) Philosophy of technology and engineering sciences. Elsevier, Amsterdam
Cross N, Christiaans H, Dorst K (eds) (1996) Analysing design activity. Wiley, West Sussex
VDI (1993) VDI Guideline 2221: Methodik zum Entwickeln und Konstruieren technischer Systeme und Produckte. Verein Deutscher Ingenieure, Düsseldorf
School D (2011) The d.school bootcamp bootleg. http://dschool.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/BootcampBootleg2010v2SLIM.pdf
Bailer-Jones DM (2009) Scientific models in philosophy of science. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburg
Hubka V, Eder WE (1988) Theory of technical systems: a total concept theory for engineering design. Springer, Berlin
Suh NP (1990) The principle of design. Oxford University Press, New York
Müller R (2009) The notion of model: a historical overview. In: Meijers AWM (ed) Philosophy of technology and engineering sciences. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 637–664
Birkhofer H (2011) Introduction. In: Birkhofer H (ed) The future of design methodology. Springer, London, pp 1–18
Blessing LTM, Chakrabarti A (2009) DRM: a design research methodology. Springer, London
Reich Y (2010) My method is better! Res Eng Des 21:137–142
Wallace K (2011) Transferring design methods into practice. In: Birkhofer H (ed) The future of design methodology. Springer, London, pp 239–248
Frey DD, Dym CL (2006) Validation of design methods: lessons from medicine. Res Eng Design 17:45–57
Seepersad CC, Pedersen K, Emblemsvåg J, Bailey R, Allen JK, Mistree F (2006) The validation square: how does one verify and validate a design method? In: Lewis KE, Chen W, Schmidt LC (eds) Decision making in engineering design. ASME, New York, pp 303–314
Brown T (2009) Change by design: how design thinking transforms organizations and inspires innovation. Harper Business, New York
Popper KR (1968) The logic of scientific discovery. Hutchinson, London
Lakatos I (1978) Falsification and the methodology of scientific research programmes. In: Lakatos I, Worrall J, Currie G (eds) The methodology of scientific research programmes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 8–110
Koskinen I, Zimmerman J, Binder T, Redström J, Wensveen S (2011) Design research through practice: from the lab, field, and showroom. Morgan Kaufmann, Waltham
Doran GT (1981) There’s a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management’s goals and objectives. Manage Rev 70(11):35–36
Vermaas PE (2012) On managing Innovation by design: towards SMART methods. In: Hansen PK, Rasmussen J, Jørgensen KA, Tollestrup C (eds) Proceedings of the ninth norddesign conference, Aalborg University, paper no 67
Kuhn TS (1970) The structure of scientific revolutions. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Feyerabend P (1975) Against method. Verso, London
Vermaas PE (2013) On the co-existence of engineering meanings of function: four responses and their methodological implications. Artif Intell Eng Des Anal Manuf 27:191–202
Cross N (2006) Designerly ways of knowing. Springer, London
Schön DA (1983) The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. Temple Smith, London
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer-Verlag London
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Vermaas, P.E. (2014). Design Theories, Models and Their Testing: On the Scientific Status of Design Research. In: Chakrabarti, A., Blessing, L. (eds) An Anthology of Theories and Models of Design. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6338-1_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6338-1_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-6337-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-6338-1
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)