Introduction
Design Methods focuses on how design can explore possibilities/constraints, and then actively define and manage the specifications of design solutions. The purpose of Design Methods is for designers to focus critical thinking skills to define problem spaces for existing products or services – or the creation of new categories. This can lead to better specifications for traditional design activities. The goal of design methods is to gain key insights, or unique essential truths that can create more holistic solutions to improve the lives of people who interact with the solution. Insight, in this case, is a clear or deep perception of a situation (through design methods) and grasping the inner nature of things intuitively.
Background
History
Design Methods originally drew from a 1962 conference (called The conference on systematic and intuitive methods in engineering, industrial design, architecture and communications, London, September 1962) was organized by John Christopher Jones, Christopher Alexander and comprised of participants from the fields of engineering, town planning, architecture and industrial design who were dissatisfied with the way their modern, industrialized world was being created. The participants also recognized that the lone designer producing design products did not work with the complexity of post-industrial societies. Designers must work in cross-disciplinary teams where each participant brings their specific skills, language, experiences and biases to defining and solving problems. Throughout the book Design Methods, emphasis is on integrating creative and rational skills for a broader view of design.
The concerns about design, its place in society and how design is practiced did not start with John Christopher Jones, or Christopher Alexander. William Morris of the arts and crafts movement in England voiced the role of the craftsman in an industrial age. He related design to values, not just production and experimented with craftsman colonies where a nurturing environment was orchestrated for a convivial atmosphere that was fair for the craftsman and moved their goods to the market to receive a fair price.
In Germany, Peter Behrens was the first modern design director of the giant German industrial combine AEG (Allgemeine Elektrcitäts-Gesellschaft) in 1907. His single minded vision of creating a unified vision for a company (products, identity, architecture, etc.) was a precursor to the post-World War II development of corporations with a unified imagistic panorama by design.
World War I, and its destruction of Europe, caused the art and intellectual community to search for meaning and reject the pre-war notions of stability and social rigidity and to create DaDa, Futurism, Surrealism and other movements that explored the unconscious mind.
The Bauhaus, originally a craft school, moved to integrating design education within modern industrial production systems and was instrumental in transforming what William Morris and Peter Beherns had started. Walter Gropius, and other faculty created the notion of the "Bau" in the center with all associated applied design professions surrounding it to create an integrated environment.
World War II, and its destruction of Europe caused the art and intellectual community to again search for meaning. With the rapid development of science and technology to rebuild Europe, there was a tension between "progress" and "quality of life." Specializations in all fields fragmented a larger understanding of integrated solutions. Architecture, urban planning, engineering, and product design created unimaginative and impersonal forms that could have been interpreted as not improving the quality of life from a humanistic perspective. It is from this world that the 1962 conference of Design Methods wanted to address.
Post 1962 Conference
The residual effect of this 1962 conference took many twists and turns, and other than some general attributes there is no one way to practice design methods. The focus has been on developing a series of relevant, sound, humanistic problem solving procedures and techniques to reduce avoidable errors and oversights that can adversely affect design solutions. The key benefit is to find a method that suits a particular design situation. The Conference on Design Methods: papers presented at the conference on systematic and intuitive methods in engineering, industrial design, architecture and communications, London, September 1962, Edited by J Christopher Jones and Denis Thornley, Pergamon Press, Oxford, London, New York and Paris, 1963 (have not been able to find a copy of this).
It seemed as if many different groups latched onto John Christopher Jones book Design Methods, with its alternative message of using design as a framework for exploration and improvement of any area of exploration, but directly addressing engineering, computerization and related fields – though not always as how either John Christopher Jones or Christopher Alexander expected. Three "camps" seemed to emerge to integrate the initial work in design methods:
- Behaviorism interpreted design methods as a way to describe human behavior. It's clinical approach tended to abstract design methods within the abstraction of behaviorism – analogus to taxonomic activities.
- Reductivism interpreted design methods from a scientific approach, breaking design methods down into small constituent parts. It's scientific approach tended to abstract design methods within the abstraction of science – analogus to epistemological activities.
- Phenomenology interpreted design methods from a experiential approach, describing design methods as human experience. It's approach tended to abstract design methods within the world of perception
All three camps built upon design methods in their own way in the late 1960's and 1970's. Both John Christopher Jones and Christopher Alexander interacted with these camps in an organic dialogue. However, both seemed to, at a certain point reject these camps and question the original thesis of design methods.
Resources
In terms of online resources, they are diverse, home grown and can be somewhat opaque. There are many design methods references in engineering and computer software development references since many of the original participants were in aerospace and computer engineering.
Books
- Jones, John Christopher, Design Methods (John Wiley & Sons Inc, August 1, 1992), 2nd edition; (Van Nostrand Reinhold, August 1, 1992), 2nd edition
- Jones, John Christopher, Designing Designing (London : Architecture Design and Technology Press) 1991
Websites
- John Christoper Jones has a website that has a few original articles about the 1962 conference as well as his thoughts over the years about design methods at [http:www.softopia.demon.co.uk/ Softopia]
- Tom Mitchell at Indiana University has an overview of John Christoper Jones life and writings at John Chris Jones
- Hans DeGraff has a good overview of John Chris Jones first book at The Attic
- The Journal of Design Research is an interdisciplinary journal, emphasizing human aspects as a central issue of design through integrative studies of social sciences and design disciplines. It is an electronic journal aiming to publish articles including multimedia applications and hence allowing visual knowledge transfer at JDR