Dear Klaus and all.
Perhaps too much focus on specifics like "design as noun or
verb", "conceptual
analysis", "paradigms", "approaches", "frameworks", "creativity",
"talent", etc. make us loose sight of the essential. I submit the
essential to be WHAT we, as a new and distinct professional and
social group, ought to be doing, and HOW this should best be done.
As "designers", we are supposed to be engaged in one or another kind
of REPRESENTATION of that "something" that we wish "realizable,
producible, and usable"; i.e. a material and/or immaterial artifact.
The first issue of our concern ought to be: WHAT is that "thing" that
needs to be represented in each sub-field of design? That is what I
consider to be the first domain of theory (i.e. discovery or
establishment of "laws") for (better) design. A group among us should
concentrate efforts on this fundamental question and keep feeding
others with insight and guidance of the kind: "if such or such
artifact representation would be constructed and adopted or not, such
or such desired or undesired outcome is ipso facto bound to arise."
The second core issue whose "laws" also need to be discovered or
elaborated is, HOW to BEST represent that "something
realizable, ..."? An ongoing development and assessment of
those "laws" directly related to the nature, processes and techniques
of different means of artifacts representation, is badly needed in
many design sub-fields.
A third issue that also badly needs to be addressed is that
concerning APPROPRIATE WAYS and MEANS of transmission of the above
developed knowledge. There is a need for specific pedagogical "laws"
related to knowledge transmission in artifacts representation. A
pedagogy for technicians and workers being trained in Design
technical schools to concretely produce artifacts representations. A
pedagogy for those whose task is to interpret those designed
representations, and then turn these into finished useable items. And
finally, a pedagogy for all other interested parties dealing with
artifacts and their various representations, like Design managers and
artifacts end-users.
Just with such a three items agenda ("framework"? "paradigm"?...),
years of work lie ahead for us all!
François-X.
Montréal
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