Task Design and Task Analysis for Empirical Studies into Design Activity
DS 30: Proceedings of DESIGN 2002, the 7th International Design Conference, Dubrovnik
Year: 2002
Editor: Marjanovic D.
Author: Bender, B.; Kammerer, U.; Pietzcker, F.; Blessing, L. T. M.; Hacker, W.
Section: Design research and technology
Page(s): 119-124
Abstract
In many laboratory studies, design activity has been investigated by observing individual designers or design teams dealing with standardised design tasks. The results are valuable for a better understanding of design thinking and acting and for further development of design theory. However, there is a lack of comparability – and often of validity – of these studies. Our contribution focuses on the design and standardisation of design tasks to be used in laboratory studies and proposes a more systematic approach to task design in this area of research. Two task designs are described, which have been applied and verified in an empirical study into the applicability of design methodology in early phases of the product development process.
Keywords: Empirical studies of design, methods in design science, research tools