Sabine, Ken, David, Terry  and others

The problem with comparing evidence based designing with evidence  
based medicine is that there are no searchable databases that parse  
design research enough to make it relevant and useful in the  
situations confronted by most designers. Some guidance may be had from  
statistics if one knows what to access and how to interpret the  
findings but, generally speaking, research findings do not map easily  
into the complexity of design problems.

At the heart of the issue are the needs, desires and circumstances -  
the "problematic situations"- that designers address. Understanding  
how needs and desires arise in the circumstances of a situation and  
the potentials through which they might be satisfied is usually where  
the experience of the practitioner weighs in. That experience is often  
under-informed and in need of relevant knowledge.  There are very few  
people dealing with how information systems  to support design could  
be implemented.

Some early efforts are worth noting. In 1976 the US National Science  
Foundation (1) found a need for information services to support the  
application of Environmental Design Research. It stated that  
"Research ... will have to concentrate on developing a comprehensive  
understanding both of the nature of design related information and the  
nature, dimensions, and dynamics of the design task." Subsequently   
the American Institute of Architects Research Corporation launched a  
program of post occupancy evaluation of buildings to determine their  
success in meeting the needs of occupants. Although textbooks were  
published,  professional offices began to offer POE services to their  
clients, and government agencies incorporated the services into  
facilities management practice no searchable databases reached the  
architectural profession as a whole.  Like POEs, case histories have  
sought to capture information and model experience to inform designers  
and other decision makers. An entire discipline of Case Based  
Reasoning using artificial intelligence to map case data to new  
situations emerged in the '90s .  ( See (2)  for a thorough  
introduction and some applications to architectural design.) But  
useful documentation of design cases did not become integrated  with   
methodologies that might make them useful. Similarly, The Design  
Management Institute began to compile and publish case histories of  
design projects  using a systematic approach to documentation.  
Although primarily conceived as a tool for teaching and sharing design  
management information, it is the only systematic institutionally  
sponsored  approach to case histories that I can recall. In (3)  I  
suggested how the DMI format might be strengthened and implemented in  
a searchable database to serve as a research tool  able to inform   
design thinking.  However no searchable database of case based  
information was developed.   Despite several other efforts the  
matching of information to the needs of designers has never built the  
institutional support necessary to establish informational tools that  
can be used to capture and search for design information tailored to a  
designers need.  It remains as noted in 1976 (1) that "The design  
professions have been able to get by in the past due to lack of hard  
research data and a dependence on experience and intuition to fill in  
the gaps where information was not available. This approach is no  
longer tenable..."

Chuck

(1) Environmental Design Research, NSF Program Options, Final Report  
National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C. December 1, 1976

(2) Kalodner, Janet (1993) Case Based Reasoning, San Mateo, CA, Morgan  
Kaufman Publishers

(3) Burnette, C.H.: 1994, Structuring Case Histories to Support Design  
Management Education and Practice, Sixth International Forum on Design  
Management Education and Research, Paris School of Management,  
Education Department, 1-3 June, Paris, France , See also DMI journal.