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Subject:

A theory of design?

From:

Ken Friedman <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

Ken Friedman <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Wed, 4 Aug 1999 11:15:21 +0200

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Terry Love's recent post to the Design Research Society discussion list
encourages design researchers to bring "other sides of design research back
into the design debate." In essence, Terry is calling for a general theory
of design, an area of inquiry that has languished in recent years. Lubomir
Popov questions the possibility of such a theory. I do not. I believe it
interesting, possible, and necessary. Many necessary and interesting
possibilities are difficult. This is such a case.

It's true, as Lubomir Popov writes, that "Design as a human activity
requires object specific methodologies, performance patterns, and skills."
What isn't clear is that design requires these "rather than abstract
conceptualizations."

Design also requires conceptualization, and in several forms. These include
abstract conceptualization, systemic conceptualization, and grounded
conceptualization. Grounded conceptualization is reflected in
object-specific methodologies. Abstract conceptualization and systemic
conceptualization both involve different aspects of theory, including
general theory. Performance patterns, and skills involve tacit knowledge in
the form of habit and situated behavior in contrast to conceptualization.

To rely on performance patterns and skills alone is to be an artisan rather
than a designer. This is what Terry refers to as the "art and design
tradition" To rely on object-specific methods engages a field ranging from
a pure craft orientation to the design tradition reflected in applied
engineering and industrial design. In contrast, a general theory of design
will support a rich, comprehensive understanding of the design process. It
will also nourish the specific methods reflected in design practice. This
is the distinction between design as a science and design as a craft.

The distinction between a science and a craft is a structured body of
knowledge and systematic thought organized in theory. Craft involves doing,
perhaps even experimenting. The frame of theory allows us to organize our
observations. Theory permits us to question what we seen and do, and it
helps us to develop generalizable answers that can be put to use by other
human beings in other times and places.

Nobel laureate Herbert Simon defines design as the process by which we
"[devise] courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into
preferred ones." This, in effect, is the central issue in design. To
"[devise] courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into
preferred ones" on a predictable basis requires understanding "things: how
they are and how they work," which is Simon's explanation of science.

One form of design practice is allied to art and craft. It is intuitive. It
sometimes produces desired results. On occasion, this practice of design
produces desirable results that may have been unpredictable, but results
than can nevertheless be seized retrospectively as the useable result of
muddling through. The other face of design practice involves
predictability. It is created by the effective response to problems, and it
has similarities to science, engineering, and technology. This is the basis
of design science, an applicable theory of how to devise courses of action
aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.

Design is of necessity in transition from art and craft practice to a form
technical and social science focused on how to do things to accomplish
goals. To meet the challenges of the design process requires understanding
the actions that lead from existing situations to preferred ones. This
means understanding the principles of predicting and measuring outcomes
based on what W. Edwards Deming terms profound knowledge. This knowledge is
comprised of "four parts, all related to each other: appreciation for a
system; knowledge about variation; theory of knowledge; psychology."
According to Deming "Experience will answer a question, and a question
comes from theory."

Theory can be described in many ways. Some theories are complex and
sophisticated. Others are simple. Mautner defines theory as "a set of
propositions which provides principles of analysis or explanation of a
subject matter. Even a single proposition can be called a theory." This
often depends on the nature of the subject.

Design seems to make use of theories at many levels. In many cases,
activities that seem to be rooted in tacit knowledge are rooted in a
grounded theory of action that simply hasn't been made explicit. Successful
design methodologies that seem object-specific frequently reflection
general knowledge on the part of people who have theorized deeply without
explicitly articulating their theory. Much of this knowledge is based on
the inductive development of general principles from which applications can
be fashioned. Not all designers care to theorize. Many guard their
professional knowledge in the form of a trade secret, managing their work
and training their associates in the craft tradition of the guilds. Others
want to understand and generalize this knowledge. While there are abstract
theories to be built that address areas of the design task, some cases of
generalizing knowledge simply involve rendering explicit generalized
theories that already exist in tacit practice.

Nonaka and Takeuchi describe the process of knowledge creation in terms of
the cycle of transformation from explicit knowledge to implicit knowledge
and back again. Knowing what to do and knowing how to do it increasingly
involve knowing why things work in a larger and more general sense. This
calls for theory.

In its most basic form, a theory is a model. It is an illustration
describing how something works by showing its elements in their dynamic
relationship to one another. (The dynamic demonstration of working elements
in action as part of a structure distinguishes a theory or a model from a
taxonomy or catalogue.)

The ability to theorize design enables the designer to move from an endless
succession of unique cases to broad explanatory principles that can help to
solve many kinds of problems. Warfield describes the generic aspect of
design as "that part of the process of design that is indifferent to what
is being designed, being applicable whatever the target may be." He
contrasts this with the specific aspect of design, "that part of the design
process that is particular to the target class." Warfield further
identifies thirty-two basic postulates of the generic design process, which
he groups under six categories: he human being, language, reasoning through
relationships, archival representation, the design situation, and the
design process. This generic design process is inevitably theory-rich. It
is no more abstract than science is abstract. Quite the contrary. Theory
relies on an engagement with empirical reality.

It is my view that there is nothing as practical as a good theory. To
theorize design in a rich and general way opens the field to new methods,
new materials, new ideas in a way that case-by-case practice and
object-based methods cannot do alone.




Ken Friedman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Leadership and Strategic Design
Department of Knowledge Management
Norwegian School of Management
Box 4676 Sofienberg, N-0506 Oslo
Norway

+47 22.98.51.07 Direct line
+47 22.98.51.11 Telefax

email: [log in to unmask]

Home and home office:

Ken Friedman
Byvagen 13
S-24012 Torna Hallestad
Sweden

+46 (46) 53.245 Telephone
+46 (46) 53.345 Telefax

email: [log in to unmask]




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