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This paper discusses the methods used to conduct high quality small-scale design experiments. It aims to provide a demonstrator promoting the uptake of more rigorous methods in design research and based on this it aims to specify a body of further work for linking study types and contexts. A small-scale experiment was conducted using methods specifically developed to mitigate four core problem areas identified from review: context, system understanding, methods and controls. The techniques were then critiqued in detail and used to draw several insights for design researchers including the value of control techniques and triangulation of metrics. Finally, the critique is used to specify further research aimed at linking design experimentation and design practice more effectively for design research.Design researchers have used experiments and observational studies extensively over the last forty years to explore the working practises and performance of designers and design teams (Cross, 2007). Recent examples includeHoward et al.'s (2010) work on ideation, Dong's (2005) work on analysing design team communication, Bakeman & Deckner's (2003) work on behaviour others across a range of areas (Ball & Ormerod, 2000; M. A. Robinson, et al., 2005). Empirical study forms a valuable part of design research, providing essential insight into many areas of design whilst also supporting theorybuilding (Stempfle & Badke-schaub, 2002) and the development of real world impact as emphasised by Briggs (2006) and Cross et al. (1996) . However, there is an ongoing challenge to improve the quality of empirical studies in design research (Blessing & Chakrabarti, 2009).One standard approach to improving quality has been to develop large-scale statistical studies, however, these are very time/resource intensive and not always appropriate for design research topics as such are rarely used in design research. A common technique that is widely used is small-scale studies. Thus, this paper examines how small-scale studies can be made more rigorous, with the aim of providing a demonstrator to support uptake of underutilised methods in design research. To this end, a laboratorybased design experiment has been developed to explore what methods can be used to improve validity, replicability and reliability. Although these studies are not a substitute for large-scale statistical validation, this paper will show that, with improved rigorous methods, small-scale studies can show possible trends and give insights into design situations. This is demonstrated using a case study experiment with the hypothesis: design teams benefit from having design relevant information presented to them during the early design phases of a product development process. The experiment also aimed to investigate what format would be most effective for the pushed information: video footage of users interacting with the product or numerical data describing the same interactions. Five design teams were each tasked with generating design ideas for a domestic refrigerator with ...

This paper explores the contribution that user behaviour could make to the creation of new energy efficient products. It does this by first looking at the energy demand of 6 households then discusses the identification of the products with the highest potential for improvement. This is then narrowed down to products with a high energy impact and those where a high level of human interaction and use is also evident. A model for guiding design changes based on a theoretical minimum energy level for each product is presented. The paper ends with a behaviour based design assessment procedure based on the results of the 6 household study.Index terms -Eco-design, energy efficiency, user behaviour, behaviour analysis, domestic energy, theoretical minimum.

This approach being proposed is based on the principle of understanding and establishing the two kinds of energy losses for products, the first kind of losses, caused by the engineering design, materials and technology used in construction of the product will be called the intrinsic losses. Mennink et al. [3] carried out a series of tests on a 200 litre refrigerator to determine where the largest sources of energy losses were in the device. The product they tested

Design engineering education needs to be close to industrial practice, since industry is the final destination of most graduates. For this reason, early engagement with 'real' practitioners can be beneficial to educational outcomes. Although much research has been done comparing the skills and approaches of engineering design students and professional practitioners little research to date has looked in detail how this engagement affects the educational process. In this study, we evaluate the impact professional practitioners had on the learning process and the delivery of learning outcomes for a number of units in a specific Integrated Design Engineering (IDE) course. We are reporting data collected by three data sources, feedback from the cohort via surveys of "Start, Stop, Continue" that run at the end of each unit; the official feedback survey of the university; and focus group feedback. Our key findings are that the students appreciate the real design context and passionate engagement the professional practitioner (PP) can offer, when immersed in the teaching process and setting the assignment, but also are critical of the negative effects the PP can have in terms of marking assessments or limiting the creative potential of open-ended projects.