Design Research Through Practice

10. Building Research Programs

How do you build a successful constructive design program? The one thing needed is an open theory. All successful programs build on what philosophers call post-Cartesian philosophy, or the social theory consistent with it. These are open frameworks that give priority to design, and theory’s role is to help make sense of why something works or does not work. Another thing needed is patience: it is easy to kill a program too early by demanding results before seeing whether it gains a following. A third thing needed is designers and researchers, as well as people with theoretical and philosophical skills who bring continuity to research over apparently different topics and areas. One thing to avoid is jumping on the ...