Towards a lifecycle of design methods

As the design discipline is expanding and increasingly contributing to solving complex, socio-technical challenges in society, its role evolves alongside this expanding scope. A significant contribution of the design discipline is its methodologies and the expertise to facilitate transdisciplinary work in these complex innovation arenas. This emphasizes the importance of design methods and, at the same time, puts higher demands on their efficacy, robustness, and usability. However, there is a lack of understanding of the method development process, the standards and norms constituting high-quality design methods, as well as the transfer and use of these methods and how they impact practice. More specifically, there is a need to understand the entire lifecycle of methods – across the research and practice communities. The literature is fragmented, and some aspect is only addressed in isolation. In this paper, we bring together existing research and propose an initial model of the lifecycle of methods in design. We discuss implications and recommendations for future research.