Dear Chris Rosan et al,
Thank you for dragging the list out of its usual swamp. I know
absolutely nothing about automobile design, but I do know a little
about design methods and research. From that perspective I would have
thought that we would need to begin such a 'project' following fairly
established (for us) procedures.
At this early stage I would focus on what we call Scoping: a group of
parallel investigations (about 20) into the context in which current
designs work. Top of my list in these types of investigations is an
investigation of all the people and organisations that may have an
interest in the outcome—what is often called the stakeholders.
Alongside that I would conduct a thorough positional analysis using
the logic of positions. This is a technique we developed to map out
our own position relative to all the other stakeholders. Get these
two things wrong, and you might as well not bother with all the rest.
In this instance there is a miriad of technical investigations which
I'm sure most product and engineering designers would know how to do,
but I wouldn't have a clue about. The other thing I would do at this
stage is work through with all the stakeholders a list of desirable
outcomes and performance requirements. This list will obviously
change as the project progressed.
So, as a designer, using designerly methods, that's how I would start
such a 'project'. I'm curious to know what other designers might do?
Best wishes from multicultural Melbourne.
David
--
Professor David Sless BA MSc FRSA
Director • Communication Research Institute of Australia
• helping people communicate with people •
60 Park Street • Fitzroy North • Melbourne • Australia • 3068
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