The Importance Of Scientific Research

What is research? Why is it that people feel the need to do research? Research is by definition,

“The systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions “ as it is described in the Oxford Dictionary. In this definition, it’s possible to see some aspects that belong to the “academic” or “scientific” research, rather than research in general. There is difference between “research” and “scientific research”. So, let’s try to define

“research” ourselves.

Research is the act of trying to gather information and facts about anything one might lack in knowledge, and the reason for it might be varying. Sometimes it’s just curiousity. Sometimes it’s because of a decision that must

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Perhaps the most important aspect of scientific research is its provability. A scientific research should be repeatable, and to be repeatable, it has to fulfill various aspects, such as having “empirical, focused questions, a careful record-keeping , and an accurate and honest reports of the findings.”(Bouma&Atkinson, 1996) The research question has to limit its scope by mentioning the details. Listing the factors and conditions which have to do with the matter at hand helps focus the question and convey the exact context of the research to the reader. When the factors are listed, it can ben seen which facts have been looked into, and being facts, they can be looked into again by anyone. This is the characteristic of what we call “facts”. Facts are objective statements that can be tested and proven. “If I let go of this apple, it will fall” is a fact proving gravity. “There are 20 people in this room” is a fact that can be confirmed by each person in the room at that time. However, the latter cannot be confirmed the other day anymore. To preserve its status of being a fact,

2001) A second approach, “Design Science” refers to the early attempts of systemizing design, recognizing the laws of design and activities, and developing rules.(Hansen, F. 1974)

Attempts in this matter have failed to meet their goal for reasons discussed above, but they have made way for the third approach, “Science of Design”. This refers to studies not on the final product of design, but the process of designing. Although used to define their own approach to design science by Vladimir Hubka and Ernst Eder(1996), the definition “a system of logically related knowledge, which should contain and organize the complete knowledge about and for designing” sums up the idea behind “science of design” quite well. It is not a collection of generalizeable theories, but a pool of possible solution methods.

Due to its changing and not-repeatable nature, it’s hard to qualify design as a science. There can be scientific research done on design, but that doesn’t produce a solid design theory that can be applied with guaranteed success. This is why the most recent approach to design is design as a discipline, design studied on its own terms, seeking to develop domain independent approaches to theory and research in