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The Design Method

While the scientific method helps us understand what already exists, the design method helps us create new things around us.

Comparison between scientific and design methods!Looking at both methods, there are similarities and differences. But looking at the end result, they can be considered complementary processes, part of our way of being: we do want to understand and we do want to create.

Shared experiences by TU Delft scholars

"Engineering, design, science and the humanities. It’s a shame that academics tend to make things so difficult for each other when it comes to the one true path to scientific knowledge" (Fokkema 2009)

Scientific research and design engineering can both be viewed as complex problem solving processes (Badke-Schaub 2009)

The design of an aircraft is a set of constraints met in an optimized shape. As a method, designing is going through iterations, one after the other, forth and back from the conceptual phase to the final phase of a configuration, until all requirements are fulfilled. And every iteration is a trade-off. (Pavel-Bos 2009)

 "Nowadays design and research are strongly interwoven and mutually dependent on each other. Notwithstanding, from a methodological point of view, there are fundamental differences between design and research. They consequently require specific methodologies." (Roozenburg 2002)

References

Badke-Schaub, Petra, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft, July 22, 2009.

Fokkema, Jacob T. "Design and...."
01-07-2009 [cited 05-08-2009]. Available from http://fokkema.weblog.tudelft.nl/2009/01/07/design-and-1.

Pavel-Bos, Marilena, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft, July 29,  2009.

Roozenburg, Norbert F.M.  (2002). A theory is not a thing: a methodological comparison of design and research. In "International conference the sciences of design: the scientific challenge for the 21st century in honour of Herbert Simon" (pp. 1-11)