Enhancing the structure of design principles to support their reuse

Abstract

Design principles aim to convey reusable prescriptive knowledge, supporting more rigorous and transferable outcomes in design science research. However, many design principles are not reused in practice. This study proposes a revised structure for design principles to enhance both their perceived reusability and actual reuse. The new structure addresses two commonly cited limitations: (1) unaddressed conflicts and (2) a lack of actionable detail. Results indicate that the revised structure improves perceived reusability. Since perception alone does not guarantee use, I also analyzed how participants applied the given principles in their final designs. Additionally, I examined whether perceived reusability predicts actual reuse and whether adherence to the principles improves design quality. The findings suggest that designers tend to reuse principles when following the proposed structure, even if some principles make the final design more complex. This study contributes to the literature on design knowledge formulation by providing empirical evidence on how information design affects the reuse of prescriptive knowledge in practice.