Design Research Quarterly 1:2 Dec. 2006 – 1 – www.designresearchsociety.org
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Table of Contents:
3 Forty Years of Design Research
Nigel Cross
7 Simplicity
Per Mollerup
16 Design Thinking
Charles Owen
28 Wonderground and Forward
Chris Rust
29 Seven New Fellows of the Design
Research Society
ICM Report:
30 BRAZIL: 7
th
P&D
Brazilian Conference on Research and
Development in Design
Daniela Büchler
Design Conference Calendar:
31 Upcoming Events Worldwide
Artemis Yagou
Call for Papers:
6 Emerging Trends in Design Research
2007 IASDR conference, Hong Kong
15 Shaping the Future?
9th International Conference on Engi-
neering and Product Design Ed.
Newcastle upon Tyne UK
32 Livenarch
Contextualism in Architecture
Trabzon Turkey

www.designresearchsociety.orgV. 2:1 January 2007
Design Research Society
ISSN 1752-8445
Creative
Domain
Creative
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Analysis Synthesis
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Perspectives on
Design
Per Mollerup
Simplicity p . 7
Charles Owen
Design Thinking:
Notes on Its
Nature and Use p . 1 6
Wonderground 2007 Plenary: Sociedade de
Geografia de Lisboa
Nigel Cross
Forty Years of
Design Research

Design Research Quarterly 1:2 Dec. 2006 – 2 – www.designresearchsociety.org
Publication Information
Editor:
Dr. Peter Storkerson, Southern Illinois University, USA
Associate Editors:
Dr. Vesna Popovic, Queensland University of Technology,
Australia

Dr. Kristina Niedderer, Hertfordshire University, UK

Dr. Artemis Yagou, AKTO Art and Design, Greece
Editorial Advisory Board:
Prof. Ken Friedman, Chair
Norwegian School of Management, Norway
Danmarks Designskole, Denmark
Dr. Antti Ainamo, Helsinki School of Economics, Finland
Prof. Tevfik Balcioglu, Izmir University of Economics, Turkey
Prof. Lin-Lin Chen, National Taiwan University of Science and
Technology, Taiwan
Prof. Nigel Cross, Open University, UK
Prof. Clive Dilnot, Parsons The New School for Design, USA
Prof. Kun-Pyo Lee, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and
Technology, Korea
Dr. Joao Lutz, UniverCidade, Brazil
Prof. Sanjoy Mazumdar, University of California at Irvine, USA
Prof. Donald Norman, Nielsen Norman Group and Northwestern
University, USA
Prof. Sharon Poggenpohl, Hong Kong Polytechnic University,
China
Prof. M.P. Ranjan, National Institute of Design, India
Dr. Elizabeth B.-N. Sanders, MakeTools, USA
Prof. Marian Sauthoff, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Dr. Chris Smith, London Metropolitan University, UK
Prof. Toshiharu Taura, Kobe University, Japan
Prof. Necdet Teymur, Emeritus, Middle East Technical University,
Turkey
Design Research Quarterly is published in January, April, July and October by
the Design Research Society.
DRQ is archived on-line at <www.designresearchsociety.org>.
Contents Copyright 2006 by the Design Research Society.
All rights reserved. ISSN 1752-8445.
From the Editor
In this second issue of Design Research Quarterly, we
have three major articles on the nature of design: two ple-
nary addresses from the Wonderground conference in
Lisbon, 2006 and one from the International Conference
on Design Research and Education for the Future, Korea,
2005. Each of these presents a particular perspective on
design thinking, processes, and goals, and each provides a
basis for discussion and debate.
In Forty Years of Design Research Nigel Cross presents
the sweep of design research in its formative decades, from
1960 to the present, covering the development of systemat-
ic methods in design and in design as an object of study.
Charles Owen’s Design Thinking: Notes on Its Nature and
Use presents a concise, diagrammed analysis of design
thinking and of design as the obverse complement to sci-
entific thinking. His article also gives a taxonomy, locating
design with respect to other fields of endeavors, scientific
and practical. On that basis, he develops his list of the char-
acteristics needed of designers and the questions that edu-
cators need to address in constructing programs that will
cultivate those characteristics.
Per Mollerup’s Simplicity returns to a familiar theme,
and develops it in its different types, relations, and trade-
offs: simplicity of appearance, of use, of construction, and
of internal structure. But, simplicity itself is not simple,
and Mollerup presents an intriguing challenge to consider:
‘If simplicity is essential to design, then it is doubly vital to
design research.’
We also have, from Wonderground, closing remarks by
Chris Rust, Chair of the Design Research Society, with its
notes on presentation and on ongoing plans for the devel-
opment of the society.
Peter Storkerson