Impact of Design Research on Practitioners in Industry

Abstract

Design research is well established within a lot of universities mainly within developed countries. It is hard to define the beginning of these research activities. Looking at Germany, about 50 years ago, a number of institutes were founded or existing ones moved to design research and teaching. With time, the interdisciplinary character of engineering design and design research became more visible. It is a good tradition in scientific communities to evaluate the impact of research activities, usually on a long-term basis. This chapter is based on experience and observations on a long-term basis. Further, research regarding the impact of design research is urgently required, although it is difficult because of long-term effects and a lot of influences that we cannot control.