Digital Commons Network^™

Design Case Studies: Never Let The Facts Get In The Way Of A Good Story!, Seymour Roworth-Stokes

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper argues that the primary advantage of the case study, its ability to reveal insight into ‘real-life’ contemporary phenomena (the here and now) set against critical incidents, happenings or events over time (cause and effect), could be undermined by a lack of methodological rigor and sound empiricism in design research. Often the ‘one off’ is reported as a ‘case’ without the critical insight or analytical discourse necessary to derive sound theory from practice. A systematic audit of design case studies in four of the leading design research journals has been undertaken along with a detailed analysis of the type, …