While the field of Design Theory and Methodology has emerged only recently in the United States, in Europe design, particularly mechanical design, has long been a subject of research. A large body of literature on design methodologies exists that is largely unknown and inaccessible to researchers in the United States. Many of these methodologies pertain only to narrowly defined disciplines and depend strongly on assumptions about the culture and training of the people who use them; however, the basic design research from Europe must be studied and incorporated into the developing field of design in the United States. A computer-oriented innovative design method is created using the principals of morphological analysis based on the work of Hartkopt and Gowalski as well as the work of Zwicky. Throughout the project, this method will be compared with the assumptions and procedures or related methods.
