GRAP 2030 // Week 02 // Lecture "What is Design Process?"

What does creativity mean to you?
How does process assist in your design creativity?


"You cannot hold a design in your hand. it is not a thing. It is a process. A system. A way of thinking."

design = process
design is NOT an object
though, it may result in a design artefact, or a designed system

What is a design process?

BUT process is not always linear.
There will be false starts.
Problem and context need redefining.
Even solution may not be the best in application.
Remember to step back — see Make time for reflection and relaxation in Week 02 reading.

Design Process
1. Resolve ill-defined problems
2. By adopting solution-focussing strategies rather than problem-focussed — DISAGREE with Myra's discussion that in science there is only one correct solution. Instead, I would argue that in engineering there must be a correct solution. In science, an answer that is not desirable may still produce beneficial results.
3. Through employing adductive reasoning — MAY BE multiple solutions. There WILL BE a new solution by every designer that attempts to define and resolve a problem. The problem may be defined differently, the skill set of the designer will result in a different solution, the cultural heritage will inform a different solution for every problem, the age and experience of the designer will result in a different solution, even the drawing abilities of each designer will result in a different solution. ‚ SKETCH don't DRAW to expand the possibilities of your own thinking. For example, if you sketch out ideas as stick figures, ideas in their piurest form, you can then develop them later. You're not being held back by your own skills but rather but your ability to imagine a new solution.
4. Using nonverbal, graphic / spatial modelling media as a means of communicating solutions and developing specification for production.

Design process as TRANSFORMATION

"A skilled professional communicator who mediates between an expert and the audience. the transformer's job is to put hte expert's message in a form the reader can understand, and to look after the reader's interests in general."

Key Questions for successful design process
What action is desired? What do I want the audience to do or how do I want them to respond?
What does the audience need to know to respond in the desired way?
Waht is the best way to facilitate desired response?
Waht will it say? What will it be? What will it look like? — Why are these questions so important? Look back at Nigel Cross who quotes Denys Lasdun "Our job is ot give the client, on time and cost, not what he wants, but what he never dreamed he wanted; and when he gets it he recognises it as something he wanted all the time." What is the thing that you're providing the client? They've asked for a poster but is it really a website they need? Or a flyer?