Development of a Step-by-Step Design and Research Method

In this article, a proposal to combine design and scientific research methods seamlessly is made. The combination of research and design methods result in an effective tool of design and research activity, as well as, a step-by-step algorithm of its execution. The difference between design and research lies in the following: the former creates an innovative newly discovered or developed result of activity, while the latter implies discoveries in existing knowledge within basic scientific areas: natural, technological (unnatural, created by people) and social and humane. The present paper suggests to apply the design method of J. Christopher Jones consisting of 3 steps: divergence, transformation and convergence, while for a scientific research - the methodology that includes the following 3 steps: the first - problem, task, the second - suggestion, hypothesis, and the third - solution, validation, and conclusions. Combining processes of design and research into a morphological table may result in an improved design and research method to be applied for both solving various exploratory tasks of scientific research and designing new products. The major advantage of suggested design and research method is step-by-step execution with activity identification at each step specifying the direction towards the final goal. The method also considers increased number of problem solutions and enables selection of the most acceptable one.