On research methodology towards a scientific theory of engineering design

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to raise awareness and generate discussion about research methodology in engineering design. Design researchers are viewed as a single communicating community searching for scientific theories of engineering design; that is, theories that can be tested by formal methods of hypothesis testing. In the paper, the scientific method for validating theories is reviewed, and the need for operational definitions and for experiments to identify variables and meaningful abstractions is stressed. The development of a design problem taxonomy is advocated. Generating theories is viewed as guided search. Three types of design theories are described: prescriptive, cognitive descriptive, and computational. It is argued that to seek prescriptions is premature and that, unless the human and institutional variables are reduced to knowledge and control, cognitive descriptive theories will be impossibly complex. A case is made for a computational approach, though it also shown that computational and cognitive research approaches can be mutually supportive.