A Multi-Grounded Design Research Process

There has been a growing interest in the philosophy and constituents of design research by a vast amount of IS-scholars. There are several unresolved concerns and issues in design research (DR). Some examples are the outcomes of design research, the role of theorizing in DR, how to conduct evaluation and validation, and the need for different grounding processes to generate valid knowledge from design research endeavors. This paper describes a multi-grounded approach for design research; consisting of three types of grounding processes (theoretical, empirical and internal grounding). The purpose is to investigate DR-based design knowledge and its roles during design research and design practice. A key feature in this approach is the division between the meta-design (within design research) producing abstract design knowledge and the empirical design practice producing situational knowledge and artefacts. The multi-grounding approach to design research will be illustrated by the support of two design cases.