DESIGN RESEARCH REFLECTIONS - 30 YEARS ON
Year: 2011
Editor: Culley, S.J.; Hicks, B.J.; McAloone, T.C.; Howard, T.J. & Reich, Y.
Author: Wallace, Ken; Hales, Crispin
Series: ICED
Section: Design Theory and Research Methodology
Page(s): 163-172
Abstract
At ICED 83 in Copenhagen in 1983, we presented a paper describing the start of a large participant observation study in industry. We expressed our early views about the issues that needed to be addressed by design research. At ICED 85 in Hamburg we presented an interim report on the project, and at ICED 87 in Boston a summary of the final results. Subsequently one author continued to work in academic design research in the UK and the other moved into accident investigation in the USA. Looking back, it is interesting to reflect on what we learnt from our design research project and from design research in general. We observe that despite all the advances in design research, many engineering companies either ignore well-established methods or are unaware of them. We also observe there are many instances of failures to address the well-established engineering fundamentals in both practice and research. A particular engineering failure has been selected as an example, from many hundreds investigated, to highlight typical shortcomings, even in a long-established company that prides itself on its design capability.
Keywords: OBSERVATIONAL STUDY; FORENSIC ENGINEERING; DESIGN METHODS