Dear Francois, Ken and all,
Thank you for your comments.
I was more proposing a course to help designers and design researchers
address complex design situations using systems tools. There are ways of
doing this using intelligent thinking and appropriate systems software with
very basic maths. The software takes care of the maths.
I thought it might be useful to create a taster course specific to designers
and design researchers. One idea would be to run the course live and have
participants use real design problems relevant to themselves. My experience
has been that such 'real' problem-based learning is more fun and helps
participants push the boundaries of their skill and knowledge further and
faster AND leads to great learning outcomes.
On bibliography, Ken just pointed me to a wonderful intro to systems by Dana
Meadows. I'd read her more technical stuff and hadn't come across this
primer. It was published posthumously by her colleagues. A wonderful intro
to systems and only $9.99 on kindle! I recommend it
(http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Systems-Donella-H-Meadows/dp/1603580557 )
To get the obvious concern out of the way - the book does not contain
equations. Dana has written an introduction to systems thinking that uses
words, examples and visual diagrams to outline a wide range of ways to think
about systems and describes some basic systems thinking 'tools' or concepts
. The descriptions of these systems concepts and examples are what this
book is mostly about and the maths is very much in the background. In fact,
in most cases, she gives the illusion that the maths is not there at all!
The book concludes with a discussion of the role of systems in the world
that has an ethical flavour would apply as well to design.
Dana's primer book gives a taste of systems thinking and how it enables
people to go beyond more conventional ways of thinking and intuition. It's a
great starter into the system design world. Thank you to Ken for drawing my
attention to it.
Francois asked about 'causal' maths. That is what Dana describes in the
above book - without using equations.
On a different tack, Francois also asked about the reference for the
'research vs design guideline gap' . The paper is Love, T. (2010). Design
Guideline Gap and 2 Feedback Loop Limitation: Two issues in Design and
Emotion theory, research and practice. In J. Gregory, K. Sato & P. Desmet
(Eds.), Proceedings of the 7th Design and Emotion Conference 2010 Blatantly
Blues. Chicago: Institute of Design and Design and Emotion Society.
A preprint is available at
http://www.love.com.au/PublicationsTLminisite/2010/Terence_Love_DE2010A.pdf
Best wishes ,
Terry
---
Dr Terence Love
PhD(UWA), BA(Hons) Engin. PGCEd, FDRS, AMIMechE, PMACM, MISI
Honorary Fellow
IEED, Management School
Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
Director,
Love Services Pty Ltd
PO Box 226, Quinns Rocks
Western Australia 6030
Tel: +61 (0)4 3497 5848
Fax:+61 (0)8 9305 7629
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--
-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related
research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Francois
Nsenga
Sent: Friday, 20 September 2013 2:15 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Maths for Design
Dear Terry
In addition to the "short course" you are ready to give off-list on "causal
maths", as announced in your latest response on this thread, I think some
bibliographic references would be very useful as well.
Those with Art & Design background are indeed more or less familiar with,
referring to your categorization, Maths 1 (primary and secondary) and Maths
2 (geometry). But many among us must admit that we lack knowledge in Maths
3 (proportional) and Maths 4 (causal).
Would you please give us some pointers on where to start looking for more
insights, including publications you have "written about this elsewhere as
the 'research vs. design guideline gap'"?
Earlier you recommended us to look into System dynamics, but I understood
that these also require some basic maths as the add says, I guess in Maths
3 and/or 4 categories. More references on these will help just to get
familiar with what you are talking about first, and then, eventually, we
would thus fully benefit from your private course.
Many thanks in advance and best regards.
Francois
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