1.2.      The Methodology of Design

A central claim of this dissertation is that design can be viewed as fundamentally a process of interpretation. In this interpretive process, elements of the designer’s tacit background preunderstanding are made explicit. The first evidence in support of this claim is a review of the writings of three influential design methodologists. It is argued that their diverse but complementary descriptions of the design process highlight characteristics of what is here called interpretation. They recognize the importance of both tacit understanding and explicit representations, as well as the iterative movement between them. Among the three writers, the dimensions of (a) the situation, (b) perspectives, and (c) language are all stressed. Furthermore, each of these dimensions is recognized to entail both (1) traditions of past knowledge to start from and (2) an ability to revise that knowledge to promote and grasp innovation.

Alexander (1964) pioneered the use of computers for designing. He used them to compute diagrams or patterns that decomposed the structural dependencies of a given problem into relatively independent substructures. In this way, he developed understandings of the design situation for solving a task based on an analysis of the unique design situation.

Later, Alexander (1977) assembled 253 patterns that he considered useful for architectural design, based on an extensive study of successful past designs. These patterns were to be reused and modified to form personal pattern languages for expressing the individual perspectives of different designers. They were schematic enough to be adapted to a broad range of specific design situations.

Alexander felt that the design profession necessarily made explicit the understanding that was “unselfconscious” in traditional cultures in which everyone designed their own artifacts. His structures and patterns were meant to be tools for explicitly representing design situations for “self-conscious” design. However, he always also recognized the need for tacit or intuitive understanding as a basis for good design.

For Rittel (1973), the heart of design was the deliberation of issues from multiple perspectives. In a collaborative effort, each participant may bring different personal interests, value systems, and political commitments to the task. Also, people with different technical specialties or professional skills may contribute to a design. These are actually different kinds of “perspectives.” The theory of computer support in Chapter 6 distinguishes three classes of perspectives that need to be supported:

*    personal or group perspectives

*    technical specialties (e.g., plumbing)

*    domain traditions (e.g., residential kitchens)

However, they all provide the same function of determining what issues will be addressed, what alternatives will be considered, and what criteria will be applied. Because they all determine the organization or relevance of information in a similar way, they can be discussed as one kind of determinant of interpretation and can be operationalized and supported with one software mechanism (a perspectives mechanism).

The important thing for Rittel was not the subjective character of interpretation deriving from its basis in personal perspectives, but the way in which deliberation among perspectives can lead to innovative solutions that would not have arisen without such interaction. Deliberation is an interpretive process in which understanding of the problem situation and of the design solution emerges gradually as a product of iterative revisions subject to critical argument from the various perspectives. This can take place for an individual designer as well if the designer consecutively adopts different perspectives on the issues. Rittel foresaw computer support for this. His idea of using computers to keep track of the various issues at stake and alternative positions on those issues led to the creation of issue-based information systems.

Schön (1983) argued that designers constantly shift perspectives on a problem by bringing various professionally trained tacit skills to bear, such as visual perception, graphical sketching, and vicarious simulation. The designer’s intuitive appreciations shape the problem by forming a subsidiary background awareness of the design task’s patterns, materials, and relationships. By then experimenting with tentative design moves within this tacitly understood situation, the designer discovers consequences and makes aspects of the problem explicit. As this is done, certain features of the situation come into focus and can be named or characterized in a language. When focus subsequently shifts, what has been made explicit may slip back into an understanding that is again tacit, but is now more developed.

Schön (1992) provided empirical evidence for the roles of the situation, perspectives for viewing, and conceptual frameworks in the iterative process of interpretation in design. His experiments showed how the designer uses tacit skills and preunderstandings to uncover unanticipated discoveries, to reflect upon them, and to develop new understandings, new perspectives, and new articulations of the evolving design situation.

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