Design Research: Theoretical and Methodological Issues Allan Collins School of Education and Social Policy Northwestern University Diana Joseph Center for School Improvement University of Chicago Katerine Bielaczyc Harvard Graduate School of Education Harvard University The term “design experiments” was introduced in 1992, in articles by Ann Brown (1992) and Allan Collins (1992). Design experiments were developed as a way to carry out formative research to test and refine educational designs based on princi- ples derived from prior research. More recently the term design research has been ap- plied to this kind of work. In this article, we outline the goals of design research and how it is related to other methodologies. We illustrate how design research is carried out with two very different examples. And we provide guidelines for how design re- search can best be carried out in the future. In the 1990s there has been a movement to develop a new methodology for carry- ing out studies of educational interventions under the labels “design experiments” or “design research,” which will be used interchangeably in this article. Ann Brown (1992) was a leader in this movement and this article is an attempt to carry forward her work to specify for the educational research community the basis for this movement and the research methods it entails. THE JOURNAL OF THE LEARNING SCIENCES, 13(1), 15–42 Copyright © 2004, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Correspondence and requests for reprints should be sent to Allan Collins, 135 Cedar Street, Lexington, MA 02421. E-mail: collins@bbn.com