Supporting designers: moving from method menagerie to method ecosystem
Supporting designers is one of the main motivations for design research. However, there is an ongoing debate about the ability of design research to transfer its results, which are often provided in form of design methods, into practice. This article takes the position that the transfer of design me...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press
2020-01-01
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| Series: | Design Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2053470120000219/type/journal_article |
| _version_ | 1811156459112628224 |
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| author | Kilian Gericke Claudia Eckert Felician Campean P. John Clarkson Elias Flening Ola Isaksson Timos Kipouros Michael Kokkolaras Christian Köhler Massimo Panarotto Miriam Wilmsen |
| author_facet | Kilian Gericke Claudia Eckert Felician Campean P. John Clarkson Elias Flening Ola Isaksson Timos Kipouros Michael Kokkolaras Christian Köhler Massimo Panarotto Miriam Wilmsen |
| author_sort | Kilian Gericke |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Supporting designers is one of the main motivations for design research. However, there is an ongoing debate about the ability of design research to transfer its results, which are often provided in form of design methods, into practice. This article takes the position that the transfer of design methods alone is not an appropriate indicator for assessing the impact of design research by discussing alternative pathways for impacting design practice. Impact is created by different means – first of all through the students that are trained based on the research results including design methods and tools and by the systematic way of thinking they acquired that comes along with being involved with research in this area. Despite having a considerable impact on practice, this article takes the position that the transfer of methods can be improved by moving from cultivating method menageries to facilitating the evolution of method ecosystems. It explains what is understood by a method ecosystem and discusses implications for developing future design methods and for improving existing methods. This paper takes the position that efforts on improving and maturing existing design methods should be raised to satisfy the needs of designers and to truly support them. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T04:51:57Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ce00f43a3952483894b502ac9a25bc74 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2053-4701 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T04:51:57Z |
| publishDate | 2020-01-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Design Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-ce00f43a3952483894b502ac9a25bc742023-03-09T12:32:01ZengCambridge University PressDesign Science2053-47012020-01-01610.1017/dsj.2020.21Supporting designers: moving from method menagerie to method ecosystemKilian Gericke0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9949-2217Claudia Eckert1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2201-3828Felician Campean2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4166-8077P. John Clarkson3https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8018-7706Elias Flening4Ola Isaksson5https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0373-3720Timos Kipouros6Michael Kokkolaras7Christian Köhler8Massimo Panarotto9https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5216-0944Miriam Wilmsen10Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Marine Technology, University of Rostock, Rostock, GermanySchool of Engineering and Innovation, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UKFaculty of Engineering & Informatics/Mechanical & Energy Systems Engineering, University of Bradford, Bradford, UKDepartment of Engineering, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UKMechatronics Department, KTH, Stockholm, SwedenIndustrial and Material Science, Chalmers University, Göteborg, SwedenDepartment of Engineering, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UKMechanical Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, QC, CanadaBusiness School, htw Saar University of Applied Sciences, Saarbrücken, GermanyIndustrial and Material Science, Chalmers University, Göteborg, SwedenAudi AG, Ingolstadt, GermanySupporting designers is one of the main motivations for design research. However, there is an ongoing debate about the ability of design research to transfer its results, which are often provided in form of design methods, into practice. This article takes the position that the transfer of design methods alone is not an appropriate indicator for assessing the impact of design research by discussing alternative pathways for impacting design practice. Impact is created by different means – first of all through the students that are trained based on the research results including design methods and tools and by the systematic way of thinking they acquired that comes along with being involved with research in this area. Despite having a considerable impact on practice, this article takes the position that the transfer of methods can be improved by moving from cultivating method menageries to facilitating the evolution of method ecosystems. It explains what is understood by a method ecosystem and discusses implications for developing future design methods and for improving existing methods. This paper takes the position that efforts on improving and maturing existing design methods should be raised to satisfy the needs of designers and to truly support them.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2053470120000219/type/journal_articledesign methoddesign methodologydesign researchvalidationtransfer |
| spellingShingle | Kilian Gericke Claudia Eckert Felician Campean P. John Clarkson Elias Flening Ola Isaksson Timos Kipouros Michael Kokkolaras Christian Köhler Massimo Panarotto Miriam Wilmsen Supporting designers: moving from method menagerie to method ecosystem Design Science design method design methodology design research validation transfer |
| title | Supporting designers: moving from method menagerie to method ecosystem |
| title_full | Supporting designers: moving from method menagerie to method ecosystem |
| title_fullStr | Supporting designers: moving from method menagerie to method ecosystem |
| title_full_unstemmed | Supporting designers: moving from method menagerie to method ecosystem |
| title_short | Supporting designers: moving from method menagerie to method ecosystem |
| title_sort | supporting designers moving from method menagerie to method ecosystem |
| topic | design method design methodology design research validation transfer |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2053470120000219/type/journal_article |
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