Abstract

Design research has risen in prominence over the past 20 years resulting in substantial discussion regarding it’s ontological and epistemological foundation, but there has been limited progression towards consolidation of the disparate views into a fundamental design paradigm. Design researchers continue to struggle to find a unified paradigmatic voice and move beyond a pre-paradigm state. Relying on the foundational support created by Sir Christopher Frayling’s taxonomy of design-based research, many have proposed the creation of a new research paradigm. This requires critical discussion on how design differs from the existing realms of research, as well as establishing the ontology, epistemology, and methodology appropriate for this new paradigm. Through literature and an established philosophical framework, this paper will look at the foundational arguments that have been generated by scholars within the design disciplines for this new paradigm, synthesizing a proposal for the associated ontology, epistemology, and methodology.

Keywords

research through design; design research; design paradigm; epistemology

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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Jun 25th, 12:00 AM

Research-Through-Design: Exploring a design-based research paradigm through its ontology, epistemology, and methodolog

Design research has risen in prominence over the past 20 years resulting in substantial discussion regarding it’s ontological and epistemological foundation, but there has been limited progression towards consolidation of the disparate views into a fundamental design paradigm. Design researchers continue to struggle to find a unified paradigmatic voice and move beyond a pre-paradigm state. Relying on the foundational support created by Sir Christopher Frayling’s taxonomy of design-based research, many have proposed the creation of a new research paradigm. This requires critical discussion on how design differs from the existing realms of research, as well as establishing the ontology, epistemology, and methodology appropriate for this new paradigm. Through literature and an established philosophical framework, this paper will look at the foundational arguments that have been generated by scholars within the design disciplines for this new paradigm, synthesizing a proposal for the associated ontology, epistemology, and methodology.

 

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