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Philip Cash · Tino Stanković
Mario Štorga Editors

Experimental
Design
Research
Approaches, Perspectives, Applications
http://www.springer.com/978-3-319-33779-1
Preface

This book’s origins lie in the editors’ own experiences of developing and reviewing
experimental studies of design; and in particular, from our collaborative excitement
when combining new methods and disciplinary insights with more traditional exper-
imental design research.
Researchers face ever-growing technical, methodological, and theoretical possi-
bilities and we have found in our own research, as well as that of our students, that
getting to grips with these topics can prove somewhat daunting. This book aims to
both help researchers share in our enthusiasm for experimental design research,
and provide practical support in bringing together the many different perspectives
and methods available to develop scientifically robust and impactful experimental
studies.
Fundamentally, this book builds on the methodological foundations laid down
by many authors in the design research field, as well as our field’s long tradition
of boundary spanning empirical studies. Without these works this book would not
have been possible. In this sense each chapter reflects and builds on key thinking
in the design research field in order to provide the reader with chapters that not
only constitute distinct research contributions in their own right but also help bring
cohesive insight into experimental design research as a whole.
Throughout the writing process our focus has continually been on bringing
together insights for researchers both young and established, with the aim to take
experimental design research to the next level of scientific development. In par-
ticular it is not our aim to lay down a prescriptive set of methodological rules, but
rather provide researchers with the concepts, paradigms and means they need to
understand, bridge and build on the many research methodologies and methods in
this domain. Thus this book forms a bridge between specific methods and wider
methodology in order to both develop better methods and also contextualise their
work in the wider methodological landscape.
Over the last decades design research has grown as a field in terms of both its
scientific and industrial significance. However, with this growth has come with
challenges of scientific rigour, integrating diverse empirical and experimental
approaches, and building wider scientific impact outside of design research. We see

vii
viii Preface

this book as a contribution to this process of scientific and methodological develop-

ment, and more generally see this process of growth as a necessary and inspiring
development taking design research into the future alongside its more fundamen-
tal brethren, such as psychology, artificial intelligence or biotechnology. This book
reflects our vision of design research as an ever more rigorous and scientifically
exciting field, and we think that this is also reflected in the substantial and insight-
ful works provided by each of the chapter authors, without whom this book would
have been impossible!

Philip Cash
Tino Stanković
Mario Štorga
Contents

Part I  The Foundations of Experimental Design Research

1 An Introduction to Experimental Design Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Philip Cash, Tino Stanković and Mario Štorga
2 Evaluation of Empirical Design Studies and Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Mahmoud Dinar, Joshua D. Summers, Jami Shah
and Yong-Seok Park
3 Quantitative Research Principles and Methods
for Human-Focused Research in Engineering Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Mark A. Robinson

Part II  Classical Approaches to Experimental Design Research

4 Creativity in Individual Design Work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Yukari Nagai
5 Methods for Studying Collaborative Design Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Andy Dong and Maaike Kleinsmann
6 The Integration of Quantitative Biometric Measures
and Experimental Design Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Quentin Lohmeyer and Mirko Meboldt
7 Integration of User-Centric Psychological and Neuroscience
Perspectives in Experimental Design Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Claus-Christian Carbon

Part III  Computation Approaches to Experimental Design Research

8 The Complexity of Design Networks: Structure and Dynamics. . . . . 129
Dan Braha

ix
x Contents

9 Using Network Science to Support Design Research:

From Counting to Connecting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Pedro Parraguez and Anja Maier
10 Computational Modelling of Teamwork in Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Ricardo Sosa
11 Human and Computational Approaches for Design
Problem-Solving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Paul Egan and Jonathan Cagan

Part IV  Building on Experimental Design Research

12 Theory Building in Experimental Design Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Imre Horváth
13 Synthesizing Knowledge in Design Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Kalle A. Piirainen
14 Scientific Models from Empirical Design Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
John S. Gero and Jeff W.T. Kan
Chapter 1
An Introduction to Experimental
Design Research

Philip Cash, Tino Stanković and Mario Štorga

Abstract Design research brings together influences from the whole gamut of

social, psychological, and more technical sciences to create a tradition of empiri-
cal study stretching back over 50 years (Horvath 2004; Cross 2007). A growing
part of this empirical tradition is experimental, which has gained in importance
as the field has matured. As in other evolving disciplines, e.g. behavioural psy-
chology, this maturation brings with it ever-greater scientific and methodologi-
cal demands (Reiser 1939; Dorst 2008). In particular, the experimental paradigm
holds distinct and significant challenges for the modern design researcher. Thus,
this book brings together leading researchers from across design research in order
to provide the reader with a foundation in experimental design research; an appre-
ciation of possible experimental perspectives; and insight into how experiments
can be used to build robust and significant scientific knowledge. This chapter sets
the stage for these discussions by introducing experimental design research, out-
lining the various types of experimental approach, and explaining the role of this
book in the wider methodological context.

Keywords  Design science  ·  Experimental studies  ·  Research methods

P. Cash (*) 
Department of Management Engineering,
Technical University of Denmark, Diplomvej, 2800 Lyngby, Denmark
e-mail: pcas@dtu.dk
T. Stanković 
Engineering Design and Computing Laboratory,
Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering,
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
M. Štorga 
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture,
University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 3

P. Cash et al. (eds.), Experimental Design Research,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-33781-4_1
4 P. Cash et al.

1.1 The Growing Role of Experimentation

in Design Research

Over the last 50 years, design research has seen a number of paradigm shifts in its
scientific and empirical culture. Starting in the 1960s and 1970s, researchers were
concerned with answering what design science actually meant and how scientific
practices should be adapted to fit this emerging field where problem-solving and
scientific understanding shared priority (Simon 1978; Hubka 1984; Eder 2011).
This was the first major effort to adapt and develop methods and processes from
the scientific domain into ‘design science’, where researchers were also concerned
with changing design practice. This effort stemmed from a drive to develop design
knowledge and scientific methods that better reflected the fact that although design
is concerned with the artefact, designing includes methods, process, and tools not
directly embedded in daily practice. In the 1980s, a new paradigm emerged, char-
acterised by the development of ‘design studies’. This was driven by a growing
focus on understanding and rationalising the creative design processes of designer
behaviour and cognition. This new paradigm was also linked to the emergence of
computer-supported design research (see Part III). In the 1990s, there was a move
to bring coherence to the field by uniting the design studies and design science
paradigms under the wider label of design research, which more fully captured
the theoretical, empirical, and pragmatic aspects of research into design. This also
reflected a larger effort to unite previously disparate research groups and empiri-
cal approaches in a single field, bringing together research and industrial appli-
cation. This effort has sparked the most recent development since the 2000s: a
drive to bring together the varied disciplines in design research and to reinvigorate
the arduous process of bringing order and increasing scientific rigour to empiri-
cal design research (Brandt and Binder 2007; Dorst 2008). This has been reflected
in the renewed focus on the development of field-specific research methods (Ball
and Ormerod 2000a), a prioritisation of theoretical and empirical rigour (Dorst
2008), and the emergence of specific design research methodologies (Blessing and
Chakrabarti 2009). Thus, the stage is set for our discussion of experimentation in
the wider context of empirical design research.
Empirical studies in design research provide the foundation for the develop-
ment of both scientific knowledge about and impactful guidance for design (see
Chap. 2, and Part IV). More formally, empirical studies support the theory build-
ing/testing cycle illustrated by the black circles as shown in Fig. 1.1 (Eisenhardt
1989; Eisenhardt and Graebner 2007). Empirical insights are used to derive new
perspectives and build explanations, as well as to test those explanations (Carroll
and Swatman 2000; Gorard and Cook 2007). Empiricism encapsulates all the var-
ied means of deriving evidence from direct or indirect observation or experience.
Experimentation thus forms one part of the wider empirical milieu.
In the context of design research and for the purposes of opening this book,
experimentation can be defined as “a recording of observations, quantitative or
qualitative, made by defined and recorded operations and in defined conditions,
1  An Introduction to Experimental Design Research 5

Fig. 1.1  Theory building and

testing as an integrated cycle
of empiricism, and its link to
experimentation

followed by examination of the data, by appropriate statistical and mathemati-

cal rules, for the existence of significant relations” (Nesselroade and Cattell 2013,
11:22). This typically follows (although is not limited to) a process of induction,
deduction, and testing (Nesselroade and Cattell 2013) in support of the theory
building/testing cycle (white circles in Fig. 1.1). Effective experimentation forms
a core part of elucidating specific variables, developing and testing relationships/
hypotheses, and comparing the predictive power of competing theories (Wacker
1998; Snow and Thomas 2007). It is important to recognise that this perspective
limits the focus of our discussion by excluding the observation or instigation of
unique and incomparable but observed and manipulated events, which might be
referred to as an experiment by an action researcher. For more on the develop-
ment of experimentation in psychology, see Nesselroade and Cattell (2013), and
for a substantially more detailed discussion of how experimentation fits into theory
building in design research, see Chap. 12, and Part IV more generally.
Over the last 20 years, the importance of experimentation has steadily grown
within design research. For example, in 1990, just 2 % (1 of 43) of papers in
Design Studies dealt with experiments, whilst in 2014, that number was 24 %
(8 of 33) (ScienceDirect 2015).1 Experimentation in its various forms is increas-
ingly recognised as a powerful means for carrying out design research (see Part I,
Chap.  3). However, this brings increasing demands in terms of how and where
experimental techniques can be applied, methodological rigour, and the generation
of scientific knowledge (Cash and Culley 2014; Cash and Piirainen 2015). Design

1Keyword: experiment in abstract, title or keywords from 1990 to 2015.

6 P. Cash et al.

research is a comparatively young field and is thus still in the process of develop-
ing its own methodological and scientific best practices. This field-specific devel-
opment is key to building a rigorous body of methods and scientific knowledge
within a discipline (see Part I, Chap. 3) (Kitchenham et al. 2002; Blessing and
Chakrabarti 2009). Thus, this book seeks to address the need to develop a tradition
of experimentation that is tailored to the specific challenges of design research,
whilst also bringing together the lessons learned from the varied fields to which
design research is linked. In order to address this need, it is first necessary to clar-
ify what it is we mean when we talk about experiments in design research.

1.2 Experimental Design Research

The scientific paradigm can be generally characterised as the generation of reliable

knowledge about the world (see Chap. 13 for more). Broadly, this has resulted in
a tendency, most notable in the natural sciences, to take the production of experi-
mental knowledge for granted and to focus on theory (Radder 2003). However,
this perspective can be deceptively one-sided, particularly in the applied context of
design research. Here, the development of experimentation is intrinsically linked
with the development of technology (Tiles and Oberdiek 1995; Radder 2003).
Experimental methods build on (often specifically designed) technologies and
technical insights (e.g. see Chap. 6), whilst simultaneously contributing to tech-
nological innovations and technical understanding (e.g. see Part III). Thus, there
are a number of parallels between the realisation of experimental processes and
those processes of technological development that often form the focus of design
research. This is particularly important in the social and human sciences, e.g. eco-
nomics, sociology, medicine, and psychology, where experimental activities form
a significant part of the wider scientific endeavour. Problematically in this con-
text, the philosophical discussion surrounding experimental research builds almost
exclusively on the natural sciences. Thus, there is a significant need to develop
methodological and scientific understanding of experimentation that reflects the
unique challenges in the human sciences (see, e.g. Winston and Blais 1996 or
Guala 2005), of which design research is a part.
In experimental design research, these discussions are nascent and form a major
reason for the development of this book. Core to this endeavour is the realisation
that experimental design research concerns human beings and thus faces a set of
challenges not fully reflected by discussions of experimentation in the natural sci-
ences (Radder 2003). Specifically, human subjects are often aware of, actively
interpret, and react to what is happening in an experiment. Further, this aware-
ness can influence subjects’ response to an experiment, often above and beyond
the actual intervention response intended by the experimenter. This challenge is
reflected by biases such as the John Henry effect, and in methodological techniques
such as the placebo control, which are well recognised in, e.g., medical science
(Glasgow and Emmons 2007), but are only beginning to be acknowledged and dis-
cussed in design research (Dyba and Dingsoyr 2008; Cash and Culley 2014).
1  An Introduction to Experimental Design Research 7

More broadly issues of bias and control are only one consideration when
dealing with human subjects. From a socio-cultural perspective, science dealing
with human subjects must also respect a common-sense perspective on human
beings. Here, social and ethical issues are paramount. Radder (2003, 274) states
“who is entitled to define the nature of human beings: the scientists or the peo-
ple themselves?” From this, it is possible to draw parallels with the discussions
underpinning design practice, i.e. how can designers influence users ethically
(Berdichevsky and Neuenschwander 1999; Lilley and Wilson 2013). Thus, just
as designers must consider their right to interpret and influence users, design
researchers must also consider the implications stemming from their interpretation
and influencing of designers. This forms the bedrock on which all discussions of
experimental research must build. However, it is not the purpose of this work to
discuss these further, and we simply point to the comprehensive ethical guidelines
provided by organisations such as the American Psychological Association (2010)
and the National Academy of Sciences (2009).
As discussed above, experimental design research encapsulates a wide range
of research designs, sharing fundamental design conventions (see Part I, Chap. 3).
Table  1.1 gives an overview of the basic types of experimental study, which are
further elaborated with respect to design research in Chap. 12. This does not
include computer-based simulation studies, which will be dealt with in more
detail in Part III. Thus, Table 1.1 describes the types of experimental approach,
how each type controls extraneous variables, and what type of evidence each is
capable of generating. For example, the recent study by Dong et al. (2015) utilised
random assignment and a between-group design, making it a type of true experi-
ment. In contrast, the study by Cash et al. (2012) used a similar type of between-
group comparison but used non-random group assignment, making it a type of

Table 1.1  An overview of basic types of experimental design

Type Summary description
Randomised or true Participants are randomly assigned to treatment conditions
experiment including a control (see also randomised controlled trial)
Means of control Extraneous variables controlled via random assignment
and comparison with a control condition
Capable of demonstrating Cause and effect, high quality of evidence
Quasi-experiment (natural Participants are non-randomly assigned to treatment conditions
experiment) (participants can also be assigned by forces beyond the
experimenters control in the case of natural experiments)
Means of control Extraneous variables controlled via comparison with a control
condition
Capable of demonstrating Correlation
Pre-experiment or Follows experimental design conventions, but no control condition
pseudo-experiment is used. Sometimes called a pseudo-experiment
Means of control Extraneous variables mitigated via comparison with
a no-treatment group (i.e. a group that receives no intervention at
all) or using a single group pre-design versus post-design
Capable of demonstrating Correlation, weak generalisability, low quality of evidence
8 P. Cash et al.

quasi-experiment. Within each type, there are numerous sub-types. For detailed
explanation of these experimental design considerations, e.g. selecting an appro-
priate sample, see Chap. 3.
Understanding the distinction between the types outlined in Table 1.1 can be
critical to assessing the evidence provided by a study and how this can be used to
develop rigorous scientific knowledge (see Part IV).
In terms of subject, experiments can be applied at the cognitive or organisa-
tional level, utilise classical (Part II) or computational approaches (Part III), and
include long or short time frames. Thus, their integration with wider methodology
is critical if rigorous evidence and a cohesive body of scientific knowledge is to be
developed (Parts I and IV).
In experimental design research, this challenge of integration is more signifi-
cant than ever due to the growing importance of computer-based experimentation.
Building on the pioneering works in artificial intelligence where computers were
predominantly used for simulation, which enables the study of various models
of human cognition (Weisberg 2006), recent developments in scientific practice
highlight the potential for computer-based experimentation. New means for auto-
mated analysis, data interpretation and visualisation, and storage and dissemina-
tion reflect just a few of the novel approaches opened by computer-based research
(Radder 2003). As with previous methodological paradigm shifts (Sect. 1.1), this
rapidly expanding research domain faces the challenge of how to define experi-
mental standards and systematic procedures, which ensure both justifiability of
the experimental method and the repeatability of the obtained data. However, the
potential for design researchers is huge, particularly in the emergent science of
complexity and the study of the sociological and psychological roots of design-
ing (see Part III). Thus, this book brings together and confronts the commonalities
and conflicts between classical and computational experimental design research in
order to distil core methodological insights that underpin all experimental design
research, bridging methodology and methods, approaches, perspectives, and
applications.

1.3 The Aim of This Book: Linking Methodology,

Methods, and Application

From Sects. 1.1 and 1.2, it is evident that experiments are well described at both
the methodology level in terms of their role in theory building/testing (Fig. 1.1)
and the detailed method-specific level (Table 1.1). At the methodology level,
numerous texts offer guidance, for example, Blessing and Chakrabarti (2009),
Saunders et al. (2009), or Robson (2002) (also see Part IV). Similarly, at the
method-specific level, texts such as that by Kirk (2009) or Shadish et al. (2002)
1  An Introduction to Experimental Design Research 9

explore experimental design in detail (also see Part II). Further, there are countless
articles discussing specific aspects of experimental methodology or design. Thus,
why does a need exist in design research?
An aspect that neither methodology nor method-specific texts deal with is how
researchers can adapt or adopt these insights into the specific context of their
own field. This need for field-specific development and adaption at the interface
between methodology and method is highlighted by numerous authors in both
design research (Ball and Ormerod 2000b; Blessing and Chakrabarti 2009, 8) and
its related fields, where similar efforts have received significant support (Levin
and O’Donnell 1999; Kitchenham et al. 2002). The key element that drives field-
specific adaption is the integration between specific methods and the wider body
of research practice and methodology, i.e. the middle ground between methodol-
ogy and methods. Thus, it is this middle ground that this book seeks to fill, help-
ing contextualise experiments within design research and exploring how they can
be used, adapted to, and developed in the design research context as illustrated in
Fig. 1.2. This book explicitly answers the need articulated in Sect. 1.1: to develop
a tradition of experimentation that is both grounded in rigorous methodology and
tailored to the specific challenges of design research; to support design researchers
in the following:
• Bringing together methodology and methods for experimental design research.
• Exploring different perspectives on how experimental methods can be success-
fully adapted to the design research context.
• Discussing approaches to developing greater scientific rigour and best practice
in experimental design research.
• Building more robust scientific tools and methods in order to shape a cohesive
body of scientific knowledge.

Fig. 1.2  The middle ground between methodology and methods

10 P. Cash et al.

1.4 The Structure of This Book

Throughout this book, chapter authors draw on a wide range of perspectives in

order to provide a multifaceted foundation in the approaches to, and use of, exper-
imental design research in building rigorous scientific knowledge. This is struc-
tured in four parts outlined below and illustrated in Fig. 1.3:
Part I  The foundations of experimental design research deals with the devel-
opment of the experimental design research tradition, its role in the
wider scope of design research empiricism, and the fundamentals of
experimental design.
Part II Classical approaches to experimental design research deals with the
study of individuals and teams, and the key features of examining these
subjects in the design research context.
Part III 
Computation approaches to experimental design research deals with
the use of computation to complement and extend classical experimen-
tal design research, as well as significant developments in this field.
Part IV Building on experimental design research deals with how to draw all
these approaches and perspectives together in order to build meaningful
theory, a cohesive body of scientific knowledge, and effective models
of design.

Fig. 1.3  An overview of this book’s content and structure

1  An Introduction to Experimental Design Research 11

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