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David, Excellent idea! I'm a big fan of the OED's approach to build word definitions by drawing them from actual examples of the written language. Since we're not really looking at just a word, but also the concept it denotes, it makes sense to me that we ask the agents that execute the task - designers - rather than just seeking written texts. Indeed, here's a suggestion for proceeding: we could set up a web site that would allow anyone to provide a description of what they do when they design. This is quite simple to set up. All this data would be available to everyone, so anyone or any group wishing to 'analyse' the data would be free to do so. A key aspect would be to describe carefully what is being asked for, to make sure there are as few answers as possible that miss the point. This would require editorial inputs from several people at least. While I cannot possibly do this now, I can very likely set something up that would let us do this sometime in the next few months -- if there was sufficient interest in the community. What do you think? Cheers. Fil David Sless wrote: > Hi All, Just a thought on this perennial subject. Rather than going to > dictionaries and debating what design *is*, why not ask what designers > do, and define design from that. > > As a designer, I can tell you what I do. I'm sure other designers can > do the same. If, as a community, we agree that what I and others do is > designing, then we have a definition. > > Such a definition would be anchored in practice rather than abstraction. > > David -- Filippo A. Salustri, Ph.D., P.Eng. Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Ryerson University 350 Victoria St, Toronto, ON, M5B 2K3, Canada Tel: 416/979-5000 ext 7749 Fax: 416/979-5265 Email: [log in to unmask] http://deed.ryerson.ca/~fil/