Terry:
I am happy with your definition of design (assuming the definition is for a profession/discipline) if you replace the word "specification" with "model" or "prototype." I would state it thus in plain English:
"a design is a model solution to a problem"
our if you prefer the Simon's outcome-oriented wording:
"a design is a model that leads to a preferred state"
The reason I prefer this is that designers do not just create specifications, certainly graphic designers do not. Designers conceive of, make, and test models or prototypes. Designers don't just make specifications, they make things that function, they make objects. The goal is the prototypical object that can be tested to see if it evokes the solution.
I would argue that this would obviate the need for you to add to your definition a second line "designing is the activity of creating designs" because the object/prototype making is integrated into the definition, thus simplifying your definition to one line.
I also prefer Simon's outcome-based orientation of "preferred state", keeping an ethical dimension in the definition for the discipline. Your "something," though accurate and broader than preferred state, leaves open the creating of wholly and intentionally destructive and evil outcomes that are in my mind unworthy and indefensible for a discipline that is part of society.
Poking a bit of fun at the 40 years part of this exchange, the above suggestion just developed this morning is nevertheless based on 40+ years of designing and 30 years owning a 20+ employee communication design firm - always making prototypes, not specifications.
Mike Zender
University of Cincinnati
Editor, Visible Language
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