Time to post a short list of weblinks that lead to a huge amount of information about designmethods. They all come from different branches, they all look different, some are a little bit older others are up-to-date, but every single one of them provides useful information and shows how many people are intrested in the topic of designmethods:

1. futurelab, innovation in education (english)
2. Engine Service Design (english)
3. MAP-Tool, PRK Universität Karlsruhe (german)
4. Portal Designmanagment on de.wikipedia.org (german)
5. TU Delft, the Industrial Design Engineering Wiki (english)
6. Better Product Design, Tools and Techniques (english)

Thanks Juliane for the inputs and for keeping me updated
regards
Dennis

1.) futurelab, innovation in education (language: english)
Very nice collection and very informative about their projects and how they achieved them.
Main URL: http://www.futurelab.org.uk/projects

“Futurelab is passionate about transforming the way people learn. Tapping into the huge potential offered by digital and other technologies, we develop innovative resources and practices that support new approaches to learning for the 21st century. A not-for-profit organisation, we work in partnership with others to:

• incubate new ideas, taking them from the lab to the classroom
• share hard evidence and practical advice to support the design and use of innovative learning tools
• communicate the latest thinking and practice in educational ICT
• provide the space for experimentation and the exchange of ideas between the creative, technology and education sectors.

2.) Engine Service Design, London (language: english)
presents a list of selected methods they work with:
“Our service design methods are an important part of the way we work. Methods help us in a variety of ways throughout the service design process and we select and tailor methods to match the projects we work on. We’ve published some of our favourites below.”
Main URL: http://www.enginegroup.co.uk/index.php/service_design/methods/P15/#articles

3.) MAP-Tool, PRK Universität Karlsruhe (language: german)
The layout looks a kind of old shool (last modified 2001) – works with frames and pop-ups and content has to be scrolled – but besides this, the “MAP-Tool” itself provides a wide range of methods, a wide range of catagories, and indeed a lot of further (linked) information to each single method in form of introductions weblinks or additional documents:

Main URL: http://imihome.imi.uni-karlsruhe.de/map.html
User Introduction: http://imihome.imi.uni-karlsruhe.de/beschreibung.html

4.) Portal Designmanagement on de.wikipedia.de (language: german)
By using the wikipedia function “portal” you will find a summery list of of hyerlinks that lead to other wikipedia articles that are related to the topic Designmanagement including “Designtechniken (designmethods). Unfortunately the most listed links are red, meaning empty. But the approach of using the portal-function of wiki catched my atention

Main URL: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:Wiki4des/Portal:Designmanagement

5.) TU Delft, the Industrial Design Engineering Wiki (language: english)

Presents a variety of design methods which can be used in the product design process. The design methods are categorized according to the activity for which they can be used in seven subcategories: 1.) Creating a design goal, 2.) Creating product ideas and concepts, 3.) Decision and selection, 4.) Design presentation, 5.) Strategy development, 6.) Evaluation of product features, 7.) TecDoc

Main URL:
http://www.wikid.eu/index.php/Category:Design_methods_and_techniques

6.) Better Product Design, Tools and Techniques
List of Tools and Techniques under the Aspect of Product Design, categorized into: 1.) Market understanding, 2.) User understanding & involvement, 3.) Product definition, 4.) Concept design & Prototyping, 5.) Design for production, 6.) Project generation, 7.) Process & Project management, 8.) Organisation

Main URL:
http://www.betterproductdesign.net/tools/tools-and-techniques.html