Developing Design Principles: Navigating the Design Knowledge Space with a Mode-Based and Abstraction-Aligned Framework

Strohmann, Timo; Winter, Robert

Abstract

Design principles (DPs) are a central vehicle for prescriptive design knowledge in design science research (DSR), yet researchers still struggle to develop DPs that are both actionable and projectable. We propose a conceptual scaffold for understanding DP development as navigation in a design knowledge space. It integrates (1) a mode-based framework distinguishing modes of framing, reflection, and synthesis, (2) an abstraction-alignment model showing why design requirements, DPs, and design features must align at compatible abstraction levels, and (3) navigation moves that characterize recurring epistemic actions involved in shifting across abstraction levels and relating problem and solution knowledge. We illustrate the scaffold by reconstructing a project on virtual companionship, showing how a candidate DP evolved through feature abstraction from an existing system and how alignment stabilized the DP. Overall, the paper offers orienting guidance for DP development by helping researchers make abstraction choices, conceptual alignment, and reasoning moves more explicit, thereby supporting transparent and cumulative design knowledge construction.