 |
 |
Dear Terence, It seems that you are thinking of something fairly specific when you talk about "metaphor as a specific tool", and 'metaphor as a main design method'. Would you like to describe more in detail what you are thinking about? I think that there is much more to metaphor in design than specific tools or methods, but I'd like to hear what you are thinking of to avoid more misunderstandings.... Best regards Jonas On Sat, Apr 10, 2010 at 3:24 PM, Terence Love <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Dear Jonas, > > Thank you for your message. I'm aware of the related issues relating to > metaphor. A fair bit of my doctoral research was about metaphor in design. > > The question as I posed it is simple and was intended to explore if > 'metaphor' is really so significant in design activity as is claimed. > > Your question led me to thinking about designs I've been working on in the > past week in terms of whether they involve metaphor: > > * Design of roof framing to support a clerestory in a semi-membrane roof > structure. > * Design of organisational and business processes for a new research > centre. > * Design of a website to automate and actualise those business processes. > * Design of land form on three housing sites and associated earthwork > planning. > * Design of a new systems analysis method > * Design of a brand for a new research centre > * Design of a document structure for a large research report > * Design of a web-based service for consignees to self-manage storage and > sales of their products in a central warehouse system > * Design of a national school exam > * Design of a vehicle suspension modification to solve a problem of erratic > tyre wear > > These are common design problems across a range of design fields. > > In none of these did I use metaphor as a specific tool that contributed in > any significant way to determine the design solutions. Mainly I used > associative thinking, logical thinking, casuistic reference, systems > analysis tools and a small amount of idea mapping. > > Associative thinking isn't metaphoric, though metaphor requires associative > thinking. Perhaps this is a confusion in the discussion? > > I suggest that the idea that metaphor is a central method of design is an > ambit claim by those who use it as their main design method. > > The above leaves me wondering how many others use metaphor as their > main/only design method? If so, in which design fields? > > Best regards, > Terry