DESIGN AS A SOCIO-CULTURAL COGNITIVE SYSTEM

Universal Design Theory, Shaker Verlag, Aachen, 1998

Design Studies, 1998

Design is a purposeful human activity in which cognitive processes are used to transform human needs and intent into an embodied object. Humans operate in a socio-cultural environment, whereas artefacts form part of an artificial or techno-physical environment, the two being integrated into a socio-technical environment. Design is about the transition of concepts from the socio-cultural environment to the description of technical objects. Different interpretations of the concepts of purpose, function, behaviour and structure currently exist in the design research domain. This paper aims to clarify these concepts through the realization that certain concepts are associated with the socio-cultural environment and other concepts are associated with the techno-physical environment and that a transference is required from one to the other to achieve the necessary flow of information during the design process. The paper shows that a clarification of these concepts, especially that of function, leads to a clearer understanding of the design process and sub-processes such as problem formulation, synthesis, analysis and evaluation.

Convergence Of Research In Art And Design: A Source Book, Malaysia: Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia., 2023

Evolving from the dawn of the design industry during the first Industrial Revolution in the 18th Century to the Industrial Revolution 4.0, the concept of design research has extended from the humble beginning of studying how to improve the quality of design artefacts and design process to a bigger perspective of solving design problems. However, the so-called design problem may not be the problem that can be effortlessly solved with the creation of design artefacts or ideas; it may involve wicked problems that require researchers to look into the matter comprehensively and holistically. It requires systems thinking, socio-technical systems approach, and the new DesignX concept posited by Donald A. Norman and other design scholars. This article explores this new extended horizon of design research and discusses possible research ideas and future spectrums. It provides insight to prospective postgraduate students who are interested in conducting research in the area.

A contemporary vision of design needs to be encompassed in the actual mutation of the productive and cultural contexts facing different systems of change. Conceived as a collective work, this introductory paper looks at these changes in the design field by identifying six possible perspectives that, albeit laying on parallel dimensions, present many interrelated aspects: productive, professional, creative, cultural, sustainable, prospective. The conclusive paragraph brings forwards an in depth analisys that offers an engineering vision of design cultures.

2004

This paper explores the expertise in industrial (product) design and contribution of knowledge generated trough the design research. Within this approach the research is situated within the social structure that constitutes people, activity, context and culture where an artifact is seen to be a mediator for the generation of new knowledge and its application. The paper concludes about the importance of research and practice integration and points out that situating the research around the artifacts, as mediators of knowledge, is transferable to Human-Computer Interaction field and any other area of the design research Author

Futures, 2008

Design is increasingly perceived as a social process, but despite a wide exposition of the concepts of cooperation or collaboration, a coherent account of the important dimensions of design as a social multi-agent process is still missing. It is argued that a generic, abstract concept is required to be able to capture the social distributed character of design, without making a-priori assumptions about the kinds of interdependencies that exist among agents (in terms of goals, knowledge or roles), or about their dispositions towards cooperation or conflict. The paper suggests that the most appropriate concept for this purpose is the concept of coordination. A model of coordination as a distributed learning control is thus presented as a vehicle for focussing on the important dimensions and qualities of coordination. Motivated by this discussion, the paper subsequently delves further into the issue of sociality by considering the question of the micro-macro link extensively discussed in sociology. In particular, the paper shows how coordination can offer a resolution of the question in the context of design, and discusses the effects of such an approach for our understanding of the relationship between complexity and design. r

Inmaterial, Design, Art, and Society, 2021

Drawing on key analytical principles of Actor-Network Theory and Science and Technology Studies, the present paper introduces a material semiotic study on the agency of non-human entities in the performative construction of new emerging realities, materialized in the creative conception, representation and circulation of objects understood simply as' design'. Hence, its focus will be in reflecting on the ability of material objects –models, sketches, renderings, etc.– to actively determine the emergence of new creative realities (designs) that takes place daily in our classrooms, workshops and studios. Its intention is to contribute to the growing academic work that seeks out to equip design teachers and researchers for the construction of an alternative design theory capable of understanding design as a more than human endeavor. Three arguments are drawn: First, that the creative process of design is characteristically messy, contingent and non-linear, rather than the orderly, controllable and linear account that key design textbooks have largely suggested. Second, that design should be understood as a process that necessarily relies on a balance between the presence of certain material entities and the simultaneous absence of others; and lastly, that much of the mess that characterizes the creative process of design is result of the intricate difficulties that arise in the process of constant negotiations between 'human' and 'non-human' actors. All three arguments suggest the need to reinterpret a series of black boxes that both designers and design teachers have largely tended to ignore despite the heterogeneous and messy nature of our discipline.

Producing Project, 2020

This contribution reflects the contemporary terms of the dialectic between the design culture and augmented technical tools. The environmental unit is specified as a model of informed interactions: the organization of the professional and research activities undergo a considerable reflection on the cognitive and operative process, and on the reordering of the skills needed to govern this transformation. We wonder what abilities will have to be acquired or reinforced by the discipline of technological design, in order to support the role of interpreter of physical space. The issue is part of the broader definition of design as synthetic and intentional action of architecture, in and of itself an exercise of prediction and prefiguration, a metaphorical act of producing the built environment.

2019

The purpose of writing this article is 1) to describe the notion 1 of “design” in order to show that there is almost no thought-based activity that does not, explicitly or implicitly, contains designing activities, including academic and scientific ones, professional practice, managerial action, and, even, everyday occupations; 2) to briefly describe the cybernetic relationships between research and design, and 3) to identify the relationships of design with intention and action. Since almost all what we have done, and do, in this life are caused by intentions that usually are followed by actions, then implicitly or explicitly, designing process support thinking and doing, especially in those related to academic, scientific and professional activities. Since 1) “design” is usually related to Engineering and professional activities and 2) this article is written for a special issue on “Research and Desing”, we will be more frequently explicit with regards scientific/research activiti...

Research into Design-Supporting Sustainable Product …, 2011

T his is a practice based account of an unobtrusive experiment conducted as part of a f ederally f unded national project f rom 2006 -2011. As Design consultant I was engaged to investigate the short lif e expectancy of domestic electric cook stoves in Remote Indigenous Communities. T he f ollowing account describes the putting in place of a f ollow up study to verif y how the implemented design interventions perf ormed in the f ield.