High‐temperature‐superconductor Josephson junctions with an edge geometry of superconductor/normal‐metal/superconductor have been fabricated on yttria‐stabilized zirconia substrates by engineering the electrode andN‐layer material to reduce the lattice mismatches (a,b, andc). With GdBa2Cu3O7−&dgr;as electrodes and Pr‐doped Y0.6Pr0.4Ba2Cu3O7−&dgr;as a barrier, the lattice mismatches from electrode and barrier layer are reduced to a very low level. The junctions fabricated with such a design demonstrate resistively shunted junction current‐voltage characteristics under dc bias at temperatures in the range of 77–88 K. The quite low specific interface resistivity on the order of 10−10&OHgr; cm2indicates that the junction performance is controlled by the normal‐metal (N) layer material instead of the interfaces. The use of lattice‐matched electrode and N‐layer material is one of the key design rules to obtain controllable high‐temperature superconductor Josephson junctions. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.