EXPLORING RESEARCH THEMES OF DESIGN RESEARCH BASED ON MULTISPACE DESIGN MODEL

Analyzing Design Studies and Journal of Engineering Design (2006-2015)

Abstract

This study aims to understand the characteristics of research in industrial design and engineering design by analyzing the papers published in Design Studies and Journal of Engineering Design between 2006 and 2015. We characterized the articles collected from each design journal by employing a faceted classification approach to investigate the central research themes. As an analysis framework, this research adopted Multispace design model; a design theory which enables to comprehensively grasp the characteristics of design domains from the perspective of the design object, design thinking, design knowledge, and design process. The studies in Design Studies involve the investigation on how the creativity of a designer affects the quality of the generated ideas and his/her design process, or how the usage of design knowledge (e.g., theories and methods) influences the process of creative design. On the other hand, it was confirmed that the studies in Journal of Engineering Design put its focus on creating new design methods for evaluating and analyzing the design elements related to technical and physical features of a design object.