Research impact and theory development are major challenges facing design research. However, the nature of these challenges and how they should be addressed is a controversial question. Philip Cash discusses three contributions: demonstrating the explanatory and predictive power of theory development for research impact; showing that theory development has broken down in design research; and offering a theoretical ‘landscape’ of design research, which is used to provide an evidence-based agenda for future theory development. Image courtesy of Philip Cash.

Image courtesy of interviewee