A Survey of Research Methods to Study Design

Abstract

This report identifies and evaluates methods used by the design research community that could be used to establish requirements for improving the effectiveness of the engineering design process in a Unified Life Cycle Engineering (ULCE) environment. More than 50 design research projects were reviewed to develop an understanding of the scope of design research during the 1970s and 1980s. Reports on these diverse projects are included in an annotated bibliography, which is an appendix to this report. Reviews of the strengths and weaknesses of 18 specific design research projects comprise the body of the report. The methods used in these 18 projects include systems analysis, field observation and participation, retrospective analysis, knowledge representation, protocol analysis, and computational experiments of problem-solving behavior.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 1989
Accession Number
ADA211213

Entities

People

  • David A. Dierolf
  • Karen J. Richter
  • Marylouise Brei

Organizations

  • Institute for Defense Analyses

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Human Systems
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Cognition
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computer-Aided Design
  • Computers
  • Data Analysis
  • Engineers
  • Human Behavior
  • Information Processing
  • Information Science
  • Information Systems
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Psychology
  • Reasoning
  • Software Development
  • Test And Evaluation

Readers

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Library and Information Science
  • Life Cycle Cost Analysis