Thank you for the reference. Dove et al's description of design space analysis looks conceptually very similar to Zwicky's Morphological Design Analysis as taught to designers in late 60s and early 70s. For designers this was later developed into the method of general morphological analysis 9e.g. http://www.swemorph.com/ma.html ).
Although in its origins the 'morph' part of things referred to form, later, it was used to refer to may other aspects of a design including abstract ones. It looks very similar to what you and Mathias describe?
Best,
terry
-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Hansen, N.B.
Sent: Tuesday, 26 February 2019 11:08 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: The changing nature of design arguments
I am not Mattias and he can speak for himself, but a lot of the work on design space analysis focuses on how there seems to be a discrepancy between following a formal notation like what you seem to describe Terence, and the practical needs of designers and students. I have myself been part of making the argument for the latter softer notation forms (though main credit for that part of the work must go to Graham Dove) that are not meant to be exhaustive and formal accounts of the problem and solution spaces, but rather be representations that helps designers (and by extension Mattias students, and mine as well) navigate the murky waters of a design space. In that case, you do not want proper formal approaches but rather a lightweight format that allows quick and adaptable iterative work while still capturing enough essence for the design team to discuss and navigate.
Preprint available here, I recommend Grahams related work section which I believe has a lot of the pre-2016 work on this http://www.grahamdove.com/papers/nordichi16.pdf
-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Terence Love
Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2019 4:00 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: The changing nature of design arguments
Hi Mattias,
I was interested to read your description of your use of a markup.
What really puzzled me, however, was your comment,
" I also teach them how to make a design space analysis of their sketchbooks so that they identify the dimensions of variation between their ideas. This allows them to find the limits of the reasonable design space, whithin which a good solution should be located. And the can position alternatives strategically within that space."
My understanding and experience of solution space analysis is different.
I find it is better to develop an abstract representation of the problem and environment (importantly avoiding anything at all to do with looking at solutions).
Then it is possible to identify an n dimensional environmental space with m variables and k relationships between them (where n, m and k may be large numbers). The 'problem' if it exists in this space can also be represented in terms of a subset of n, m and k
From there it is first possible to get some idea of the functional 'shapes' of the environment and the problem. Then, this offers opportunities to identify potential abstract characteristics of areas of solution space that better address the problem.
Only then, after the design solution space analysis is completed, is it appropriate to look for physical characteristics of solutions that match to the optimal solution areas of the design space.
A simplified practical version of this (and software to process the maths) was described by Alexander in Notes on the Synthesis of Form.
Identifying a range of design solutions first and assuming that range identifies the limits and characteristics of the solution space seems a little restrictive?
Cheers,
Terry
==
Dr Terence Love,
School of Design and Built Environment, Curtin University, Western Australia CEO, Design Out Crime and CPTED Centre PO Box 226, Quinns Rocks, Western Australia 6030 [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask]
+61 (0)4 3497 5848
ORCID 0000-0002-2436-7566
==
-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Mattias Arvola
Sent: Saturday, 16 February 2019 7:15 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: The changing nature of design arguments
Terry, Erik and others,
I teach my interaction design students to annotate their sketches using a simple IBIS notation. Question marks for issues, hashtags for alternatives/options, plus/minus lists for pro et contra on the alternatives, and exclamation marks for design decission. In my experience the good sketching with design rationale practice is about 50/50 sketch-annotation ratio.
On advanced level, I also teach them how to make a design space analysis of their sketchbooks so that they identify the dimensions of variation between their ideas. This allows them to find the limits of the reasonable design space, whithin which a good solution should be located. And the can position alternatives strategically within that space.
So, design rationale in the more formal fashion is usually too much documentation overhead, but integrated informally in sketching works well. That is als the direction of Jack Carrolls approachto design rationale (claims analysis), even though the things I’ve seen from them isn’t founded in a fraditional sketching practice. His approach appears more convergent than divergent.
This is my personal experience as a teacher, I should add. I have made any empirical study of it.
Best,
// Mattias Arvola
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