Design Hypothesis: Knowledge-Relevance Model

Abstract

This chapter asks how constructive design researchers construe hypotheses. What guides the construal process, is it theory, research program, or design reasoning? We will argue that this question involves two sub-questions: one concerns the hypothesis that guides research, another the hypothesis that guides design. We argue that constructive design research has to balance both of these to be effective, and we also point out that many of the controversies we have discussed in the previous chapters are in fact efforts to grapple with the Janus-faced character of the discipline. It is this character that has inspired us to suggest the Knowledge-Relevance model that help the constructive design researcher to balance the core research activities when the process is driven by design.