This is a literature review reflecting upon Herbert Simon's vision of establishing a science of design in his book, The Sciences of the Artificial. The aim of this paper is to clarify the evolution of Simon's views of design in the three editions of this book and identify the value of the refinements he made in the later editions to design research. In addition to the three editions of Simon's book, the selected literature includes the major design publications explicitly criticised or supported Simon's views of design, as well as several relevant studies in the management field. It enables this paper to present a historical overview of design researchers' explorations of Simon's vision of design. Through this research, this paper demonstrates that revisiting and reimagining Simon's vision of design in his book (the third edition) may constitute a big step towards the further development of design theory and design thinking.