Dear Klaus,

Thanks for a reasonable proposition. Design is a basic human faculty. There is a difference between defining the word “design” and describing the kinds of things that one may design. There is also a crucial difference between the capacity or action of design and the specific nature of professional design. Design is a general human capacity that all human beings exercise. As Herbert Simon said, “everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.” Professional designers find ways to do this in specific ways, using professional skill to serve legitimate stakeholders by devising courses of action on behalf of those who hire them to change existing situations into preferred situations. The how of this differs case by case, and different design professions design different kinds of things in different kinds of ways.

A chemical engineer who designs chemicals has different objects of interest from a clothing designer who designs haute couture. The chemical engineer who designs chemicals has a different job to that of the chemical engineer who manufactures chemicals, just as the work of the clothing designer differs to that of the clothes manufacturer. For that matter, the haute couture designer has a different job than the off-the-rack designer. The bespoke tailor designs each suit to order, even we call him a tailor rather than a designer.

For all the words that float past us on this list, I am occasionally puzzled at the lack of care with which we sometimes use words. Here, I do not complain about the fact that we intend different things by there words that we use. That is the nature of legitimate disagreement. Here I speak of the lack of care in using words correctly. It would be interesting, as you noted to me elsewhere, to see a debate on the intellectual weaknesses of the design discourse. 

In this specific thread, I note that Terry Love’s list is not a list of how designers in different design professions define design. It is a list of different kinds of design professions with a list of the objects of their interest. The list Terry posted in this thread states what sorts of things the different designers work with. It does not describe the ways in which these different kinds of design professionals define design.

There is a problem with Terry's claim that he has studied hundreds of definitions of design. I suspect that the majority of Terry’s material involves *usage exemplars* of the word design rather than *definitions* of the word design. Merriam-Webster’s gives the relevant definition of what it is to define something: “to determine or identify the essential qualities or meaning of” (f.ex.:  <whatever defines us as human>) or “to discover and set forth the meaning of (as a word).” 

Usage exemplars are phrases that offer examples of the ways in which people use a word. That includes such phrases as “design is a cherry on the cake of civilisation,” “design is what makes life beautiful,” or “design is how we turn chemicals into workaday tools for better living.”

A definition is more than a usage exemplar. Merriam-Webster’s defines the word definition in this way: “an act of determining; specifically,” “a statement expressing the essential nature of something,” “a statement of the meaning of a word or word group or a sign or symbol,” (f.ex: <dictionary definitions>,” “a product of defining,” and “the action or process of stating the meaning of a word or word group.”

If we intend to define words, we need better approaches to definition. There are other issues at play besides what it is to define — but to the degree that we speak of definitions, we should know what definitions are and we should understand how to use them. It also helps to know when not to use them — in this case, it is enough to ask the question you ask: “What about looking at design as a basic human faculty?”

If we intend to explain what it is that professional designers do, we need to consider more closely what design is — and who does it.

Yours,

Ken

Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | Editor-in-Chief | 设计 She Ji. The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation | Published by Tongji University in Cooperation with Elsevier | URL: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/she-ji-the-journal-of-design-economics-and-innovation/

Chair Professor of Design Innovation Studies | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China ||| University Distinguished Professor | Centre for Design Innovation | Swinburne University of Technology | Melbourne, Australia

—

Klaus Krippendorff wrote in response to Terry Love:

—snip—

Terry 
 
You forgot that scientist define the design of experiments as a way to generate evidence in support of theories or hypotheses.  
 
What about looking at design as a basic human faculty? 
 
Klaus 

—snip—


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