Tutorial of the SIG on Design Theory

The community of the Design Theory SIG of the Design Society, was created in 2007, to strengthen and unify the field of design theory. Since, thanks to active and fruitful research, important achievements have been reached through: a) historical and comparative work on design theories (Hatchuel et al. 2011; Le Masson, Dorst, and Subrahmanian 2013) b) establishing  theoretical foundations with a high level of generality that consolidate Design ontology and paradigm (Hatchuel et al. 2018). Design Theory now offers a firm scientific body and ground for integrated and holistic engineering design (Vajna 2020). It has a growing impact on different disciplines in both natural and social sciences. Today, Design Theory is a vibrant research field that offers consistent models, tools and methodologies that PhD students may want to use to pursue their own research questions.   Therefore, the goal of this tutorial is two-folded. First, helping the students from different disciplines to master the literature, tools and methods of Design Theory for their own doctoral research. Second, presenting open questions and recent advances in Design Theory for PhD students willing to contribute to the field.        The tutorial attracts students from fields where Design Theory has now a rich literature:  

• Engineering Design,
• Decision and rationality theory
• Psychology of Creativity
• Innovation Management,
• Knowledge and Science Management,
• Public Management and Policy making processes

       It also welcomes students from Humanities, Philosophy and Art that are willing to investigate the implications of Design Theory in their fields.   To reach these goals, the tutorial provides the following contents:

• Basic courses: several modules, made by professors of the Professorial college, on basic notions of design theory
• Work with faculty members: interactive work sessions with the tutorial faculty members for students to identify what design theory can bring to their research
• Advanced Topic: short presentation made by an expert on an advanced topic in design theory – typically: 30 minutes, based on a paper, presented by a professor + 15 minutes for questions.
• Publishing in design theory: presentation of the Research in Engineering Design journal

Bibliography: Hatchuel, Armand, Pascal Le Masson, Yoram Reich, and Eswaran Subrahmanian. 2018. ‘Design Theory: A Foundation of a New Paradigm for Design Science and Engineering’. Research in Engineering Design 29 (1): 5–21. Hatchuel, Armand, Pascal Le Masson, Yoram Reich, and Benoit Weil. 2011. ‘A Systematic Approach of Design Theories Using Generativeness and Robustness’, 12. Le Masson, Pascal, Kees Dorst, and Eswaran Subrahmanian. 2013. ‘Design Theory: History, State of the Art and Advancements’. Research in Engineering Design 24 (2): 97–103. Vajna, S. 2020. Integrated Design Engineering: Interdisciplinary and Holistic Product Development.