Evaluating the efficacy and effectiveness of design methods: A systematic review and assessment framework

The increasingly transdisciplinary context of design, where designers collaborate with other disciplinary and domain experts, means there is a growing need to evidence the effectiveness of design methods. We address this need in two ways. First, we propose a ‘chain of evidence’, from motivation to claims, operationalising this in a systematic...

Drivers of usability in product design practice: Induction of a framework through a case study of three product development projects

In a case study of the development of three electronic consumer products, we traced the origins of usability issues. Based on the data collected, an initial, explanatory framework was induced of important drivers of usability in product design. We conclude that – while usability methods mostly focus on gaining knowledge about users and...

Heuristics for selecting and using behavioural design methods.

Design for behaviour change is a young and developing practice grounded in the belief that using insights from the behavioural sciences leads to more effective interventions for behaviour change. Although a wide range of tools, techniques and methods exist to support this, few are well introduced in terms of their underlying values or paradigm...

Pioneering online design teaching in a mooc format: Tools for facilitating experiential learning

Providing online design education offers a unique opportunity for learning, by providing high quality learning experiences to distributed audiences for free. It has its challenges as well, particularly when the aim is use ‘active learning’ strategies (Biggs & Tang, 2011), which are necessary when teaching design. In this paper, we report...

Method Usage in Design: How methods function as mental tools for designers

Methods are means to help designers achieve desired change as efficiently and effectively as possible. Methods can be used to do so in the context of learning - to help teach students how to design on a professional level. Methods can also be used in the context of performance - to help designers perform better at what they already do (well)....

Forming a method mindset: The role of knowledge and preference in facilitating heuristic method usage in design

Both systematic and heuristic methods are common practice when designing. Yet, in teaching students how to design, heuristic methods are typically only granted a secondary role. So, how do designers and students develop a mindset for using heuristic methods? In this paper, we study how prior knowledge (about heuristic methods and their usage)...

The use of systematic and heuristic methods in the basic design cycle: A comparative survey of students' method usage

In the present paper, we study the reported use of systematic and heuristic methods for 304 students enrolled in a master-level course on design theory and methodology. What to teach design and engineering students about methods is an important topic for discussion. One reason for this is that the experiences of design educators when using...

Forming a mindset: Design students' preconceptions about the usefulness of systematic methods

Teaching students to use systematic design methods effectively is not straightforward. While method teaching often focuses on the procedural aspects of method usage (e.g., what steps to take and in what order), effectively using a systematic method entails more than following its ‘instructions’. As noted by Andreasen [1], students need to be...

The ambiguous role of methods in design education: Initial findings from the Delft method study

Flexibility of choice and perceived impact of using design methods

Community based design support

Different approaches of design methodology that have been developed throughout the history of the design methods movement have produced many insights into the structure of the design process (Alexander, 1964; Simon, 1969; Schön. 1983; Hubka and Eder, 1987; Pahl and Beitz. 1984; Roozenburg and Eekels, 1995). It seems however, that little of this...