Design research - Definition and Overview

Design Research emerged as a recognisable discipline in the early sixties marked by a conference at Imperial College, London in 1963. It was built on a network of practitioners and academics in the earlier Design Methods movement and founded the Design Research Society (http://www.designresearchsociety.org) (DRS). The DRS conference proceedings and subsequently the journal Design Studies (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/destud/) are primary references charting the development of the subject. L. Bruce Archer founded the first Department of Design Research at the Royal College of Art, London, becoming the first Professor of Design Research.