Reflection, abstraction, and theorizing in design and development research

Abstract

Design theories have been proposed as means to capture abstract knowledge about the design and development of information technology (IT) and information systems (IS) artifacts. There is now an increasingly accepted and used body of knowledge on the processes of design research and the components of design theories. Explicit guidance is still sparse, however, as to how to extract design theories during design science research. In this paper, we focus on reflection and abstraction in design science research as distinct activities leading to design theory. We suggest an abstraction framework that recognizes different modes of causal analysis related to the discrete decisions made by designers and developers as well as to the artifact in use: creative (mental) causes, active causes, and passive causes. The first recognizes the creativity of the human mind, the second deliberate interventions and their consequences, and the third is built upon the notion of affordances that describe the potential uses of an artifact depending on its use context. We argue that these modes of causal analysis can be used to abstract from specific design processes in order to identify key components of design theory.