design is the concept of or proposal for an object, process, or system.
Design refers to something
that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, though it is sometimes used to refer to
the nature of something – its design. The verb to design expresses the process of developing a
design. In some cases, the direct construction of an object without an explicit prior plan may also be
considered to be a design (such as arts and crafts). A design is expected to have a purpose within a
certain context, usually having to satisfy certain goals and constraints, and to take into
account aesthetic, functional, economic, environmental or socio-political considerations. Typical
examples of designs include architectural and engineering drawings, circuit diagrams, sewing
patterns, and less tangible artefacts such as business process models.[1][2]
Designing[edit]
People who produce designs are called designers. The term 'designer' generally refers to someone
who works professionally in one of the various design areas. Within the professions, the word
'designer' is generally qualified by the area of practice (for example: a fashion designer, a product
designer, a web designer, or an interior designer), but it can also designate others such as architects
and engineers (see below: Types of designing). A designer's sequence of activities to produce a
design is called a design process, using design thinking and possibly design methods. The process
of creating a design can be brief (a quick sketch) or lengthy and complicated, involving considerable
research, negotiation, reflection, modeling, interactive adjustment, and re-design.
Designing is also a widespread activity outside of the professions, more than just those formally
recognized as designers. In his influential book The Sciences of the Artificial the interdisciplinary
scientist Herbert A. Simon proposed that "Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at
changing existing situations into preferred ones".[3] And according to the design researcher Nigel
Cross "Everyone can – and does – design", and "Design ability is something that everyone has, to
some extent, because it is embedded in our brains as a natural cognitive function".[4]
History of design[edit]
Main article: Design history
The study of design history is complicated by varying interpretations of what constitutes 'designing'.
Many design historians, such as John Heskett, start with the Industrial Revolution and the
development of mass production.[5] Others subscribe to conceptions of design that include pre-
industrial objects and artefacts, beginning their narratives of design in prehistorical times.[6] Originally
situated within art history, the historical development of the discipline of design history coalesced in
the 1970s, as interested academics worked to recognize design as a separate and legitimate target
for historical research.[7] Early influential design historians include German-British art
historian Nikolaus Pevsner and Swiss historian and architecture critic Sigfried Giedion.
Design education[edit]
Institutions for design education date back to the nineteenth century. The Norwegian National
Academy of Craft and Art Industry was founded in 1818, followed by the United
Kingdom's Government School of Design (1837), Konstfack in Sweden (1844), and Rhode Island
School of Design in the United States (1877). Polish "Towarzystwo Polska Sztuka Stosowana"
(1901) and Warsztaty Krakowskie (1913). The German art and design school Bauhaus, founded in
1919, greatly influenced modern design education.[8]
Design education covers the teaching of theory, knowledge and values in the design of products,
services and environments, and focusses on the development of both particular and general skills
for designing. It is primarily orientated to prepare students for professional design practice, based
around project work and studio or atelier teaching methods.
There are also broader forms of higher education in design studies and design thinking. Design also
features as a part of general education, for example within Design and Technology. The
development of design in general education in the 1970s created a need to identify fundamental
aspects of 'designerly' ways of knowing, thinking and acting, resulting in the establishment of design
as a distinct discipline of study.[9]
Design process[edit]
Substantial disagreement exists concerning how designers in many fields, whether amateur or
professional, alone or in teams, produce designs.[10] Design researchers Dorst and Dijkhuis
acknowledged that "there are many ways of describing design processes", and compare and
contrast two dominant but different views of the design process: as a rational problem solving
process and as a process of reflection-in-action. They suggested that these two paradigms
"represent two fundamentally different ways of looking at the
world – positivism and constructionism".[11] The paradigms may reflect differing views of how
designing should be done and how it actually is done, and they both have a variety of names. The
problem-solving view has been called "the rational model",[12] "technical rationality"[13] and "the reason-
centric perspective".[14] The alternative view has been called "reflection-in-action",[13] "co-evolution",
[15]
and "the action-centric perspectiv
