Impact of Method Users on the Application of Design Methods - Assessing the Role of Method-related Background Knowledge
DS 125: Proceedings of the 34th Symposium Design for X (DFX2023)
Year: 2023
Editor: Dieter Krause, Kristin Paetzold-Byhain, Sandro Wartzack
Author: Lukas Paehler (1), Olga Sankowski (2), Selin Ureten (2), Matthias Eisenmann (1), Dieter Krause (2), Sven Matthiesen (1)
Series: DfX
Institution: 1: IPEK - Institute of Product Engineering, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology; 2: PKT - Institute of Product Development and Mechanical Engineering Design, Hamburg University of Technology
Page(s): 055-064
DOI number: 10.35199/dfx2023.06
Abstract
By conducting experiments in controlled environments, design researchers test the suitability of design methods for users in practice. However, users in practice bring a variety of background knowledge that is not reflected by the samples with homogeneous knowledge used in controlled environments, especially student samples. To investigate the influence of background knowledge, two method validation experiments with participants with different background knowledge were replicated and evaluated. The results show an influence of background knowledge regarding method use and outcome. Therefore, the background knowledge of the participants must be taken into account when planning method validation experiments in order to ensure that the results are valid for practice.
Keywords: Design Methods, Design Research, Method Validation, Experimental Research