Research Design Canvas

This chapter focuses on describing how to go about designing a research project. First, we will learn about framing the research study as a project. Then, we will be introduced to the research design canvas. While the details are specific to socio-technical grounded theory (STGT) studies, the research design canvas or template can be used for research project design in general. Next, we will learn about the 10 elements of the research design canvas, including the forming of the research team, identifying the domain and actors, selecting the phenomenon and topic to investigate, carefully assessing research ethics and considering the research values, formulating the guiding research questions, acknowledging the team’s research philosophy, deciding on the initial research protocols including data, techniques, and tools, and listing the desirable research impact. The chapter concludes by describing a pilot study to apply and refine the above elements of the research project design.