On Wed, 12 Mar 2003, Dr Terence Love wrote:
> ... Somewhere, I have a by
> now rather out dated list of over two hundred different sub-fields of
> the Design discipline of which the 'Art and Design' domains are very
> much a minority.
> ...(Graphic Design etc)
> ...(Engineering, software etc)
> ...(... organisational design, behavioural design etc)
I have a working definition (not original, and I think obtained from
"Opening Spaces" by Sullivan & Porter, Ablex Publishing 1997) that a
design problem is any problem in which the outcome is not pre-defined by
the start point, so that the solution evolves or is 'emergent'. Hence
design is a process rather than a domain, and an attempt to clarify all
uses of design and to quantify them is therefore pointless. You
are simply duplicating the classification of fields of knowledge, or more
specifically are quantifying the relative activity within each field at a
particular time.
The definition requires a separation between 'objectives' which may be
known at the start of the process and the 'solution' that meets the
objectives more or less within the constraints of the domain.
R. Allan Reese Email: [log in to unmask]
Associate Manager GRI Direct voice: +44 1482 466845
Graduate School Voice messages: +44 1482 466844
Hull University, Hull HU6 7RX, UK. Fax: +44 1482 466436
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The management here were SO impressed with W Edward Deming's "Out of
the crisis" that they are working flat out to create THE BEST crisis;
then they can start implementing the 13 obligations.
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