Hi Salu,
It's not that Rittel pointed to context-dependent nature of design problems. All design problems are context-dependent. We address context-dependent design problems as a matter of course. Rittel however identified 10 specific criteria to define what he meant by wicked problems. Personally, I think some of his criteria are a bit dodgy and I've detailed why twice before on this list. Regardless, Rittel defines wicked problems in terms of theses 10 criteria rather than simply saying design problems are context dependent.
This sort of thing is something we need to problematize more critically than has been typical in the literature and research thinking of design.
An example form another field, many uncritically claim that Alexander Fleming invented the antibiotic. This is nonsense. Antibiotics were widely available at the time and before - bleach and many acids work well. The problem he solved was to design a solution to a transport problem: how to get a substance to the right place inside the body without killing the patient.
We need the same kind of precision of thinking about design theory.
You say you think addressing wicked problems is a hopeless challenge. Perhaps you might change your mind after reading Forrester's 'Counter-intuitive behaviour of social systems' . The design process I developed is based on it. It simply uses people and their brains for the bits that they are good for, and computers for the bits that they are good for. Perhaps the most important part is to discourage people from thinking that they can design solutions to wicked problems. Instead, what designers and stakeholders can do is contribute their partial knowledge and mental models to guide computer model development and then twiddle the model and choose from amongst predicted outputs. That isn't that much different from dragging visual design elements around a page to find a design that you feel happy with.
The kind of design problems that are beyond wicked problems are mostly NOT engineering design problems. They are problems of design of services, social systems, economic systems, media systems, political systems, social interventions, etc. An example would be to design an intervention to result in significant and rapid reductions in alcohol consumption in a society whilst minimising adverse effects.
Best wishes,
Terence
---
Dr Terence Love
PhD(UWA), BA(Hons) Engin. PGCEd, FDRS, PMACM, MISI
Love Services Pty Ltd
PO Box 226, Quinns Rocks
Western Australia 6030
Tel: +61 (0)4 3497 5848
[log in to unmask]
www.loveservices.com.au
--
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Salu Ylirisku
Sent: Saturday, 27 February 2016 2:57 PM
To: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Design theories for beyond wicked problems
Dear all,
I suppose this message opened a can of worms… Let’s see.
Terry: Wicked problems are a limited class of relatively difficult design problems. They are class of design problems defined and bounded by the characteristics given by Rittel.
Rittel’s (1971) founding observation was essentially the context-dependent character of design problems. And, once acknowledging that design problems are dependent on context, we are taken into the rabbit hole of the idea of ‘context’. And this is where things get super interesting, I think. And I also think that Rittel’s point leads to a more foundational direction than just into a “limited class of relatively difficult design problems”.
Terry: Elsewhere, I’ve problematized the definitions of wicked problem given by Rittel and described a standard predictive design process for addressing and resolving them that combines deterministic prediction and collaborative design activities.
And once design problems become understood as a process that involves the framing context, a necessary ingredient to be modelled - in order to truly make the models holistic and predictive - would be to include the way designers (here I suppose human beings) use their knowledge, skills, and resources to produce a sense of context in their socio-material interaction. And, I think it is essentially a quite hopeless challenge. But, once the context is framed and clearly defined, then it becomes possible to talk about the development of predictive models of limited sort.
Terry: The classes of design problems that are more difficult than wicked problems, might or might not be ‘wicked’ as defined by Rittel. Regardless, they are difficult!
Based on the above, I think we are not talking about wicked problems in Rittel’s sense here, but about very complex and dynamic scientific engineering problems. And in this realm we are somehow constrained in some sort of pure rational thought…
Kind regards,
Salu Ylirisku
Associate professor
SDU Design
Kolding, Denmark
https://sydanskuniversitet.academia.edu/SaluYlirisku
-----------------------------------------------------------------
PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]>
Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design
Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|