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The Design Way: Intentional Change in an Unpredictable World : Foundations and Fundamentals of Design Competence
Humans did not discover fire--they designed it. Design is not defined by software programs, blueprints, or font choice. When we create new things--technologies, organizations, processes, systems, environments, ways of thinking--we engage in design. With this expansive view of design as their premise, in The Design Way, Harold Nelson and Erik Stolterman make the case for design as its own culture of inquiry and action. They offer not a recipe for design practice or theorizing but a formulation of design culture's fundamental core of ideas. These ideas--which form "the design way"--are applicable to an infinite variety of design domains, from such traditional fields as architecture and graphic design to such nontraditional design areas as organizational, educational, interaction, and health care design. Nelson and Stolterman present design culture in terms of foundations (first principles), fundamentals (core concepts), and metaphysics, and then discuss these issues from both learner's and practitioner's perspectives. The text of this second edition is accompanied by new detailed images, "schemas" that visualize, conceptualize, and structure the authors' understanding of design inquiry. This text itself has been revised and expanded throughout, in part in response to reader feedback.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 1, 2014
Something that should be on more reading lists. Not just designers, but with the way that design thinking is influencing other practices, it's relevant to business and general thinking equally. Jargon and terminology may be specific to design, but the ideas around judement as wisdom, and desiderata are philosophically interesting generally. Specific to design, it clearly lays out contemporary thinking, and has pointed out to me and clarified ideas and authors which I can further pursue. Toynbee's hierarchy of change and the notion of the ultimate particular being two perfect examples of that from early in the book.
February 7, 2023
I've been wading through this book for nearly a year and it has been a journey. There is so much in here to unpack, think through, and digest that I hope you won't take this small review as an accurate picture of the whole work itself.
Off the top of my head my biggest takeaways include the following:
1) Design is a distinctly different form of making sense of the world from science and art.
2) One of the most important abilities of a designer is the development of character.
3) Design is a form of action, expression, and service that is always unique in some degree to its context.
4) The mindset of design is characterized by being adequate, not comprehensive, and being intentional over reactionary.
Some key definitions and thoughts that I found especially thought-provoking:
> Goal of design: "Designers from any design field, formally defined or not, can relate to other designers because they all are striving toward the same goal; they are hoping to add to, or change, the real world. They do this through their service-related creativity and innovation, in both particular and universal ways." (p. 22)
> Design Wisdom, "Inquiry for action. Actions creating the right thing, for the right people, at the right time, in the right place, in the right way, for the right reasons is design wisdom." (p.217)
> Systems matter. "Reductionist approaches in thinking and intervention separate and isolate function from teleological ends while ignoring altogether intentional aims. But what we argue here is that the understanding and improvement or optimization of functional members and elements of a system in isolation from the intention, purpose, or ends of a system is not possible. The relationships between functional activity and teleological considerations are as important as the connections between system elements." (p.76)
> Knowing "what is" is not enough. "Description and explanation - science - do not prescribe action, nor do prediction and control - technology - justify action. Around the world, billions of dollars are spent on studies and projects based on science and technology. This is done in the belief that rubbing the two together will generate the spark of prescriptive action. Unfortunately, this never happens, because the spark must flare from a different source." (p. 106)
>What do you design? "There is a trend in design schools and design professions focused on creating things that "change behavior." The confluence of those who like to tell people what to do and those who like to be told what to do seems to be growing. Unfortunately, too little is being done to enable people to understand and accept the challenge of being human - in other words, "lame gods" - possessing the skills to make almost anything happen, but lacking the competency to discern which among all the possibilities actually ought to be done. As designers, we have the freedom to chose whether we create stuff, things, or junk. Our responsibility of course is to better understand how best to bring the right things into existence, for the right reasons, for the right people, at the right time and place." (p. 248).
I intend to come back and add more. It is just too darn good.
Off the top of my head my biggest takeaways include the following:
1) Design is a distinctly different form of making sense of the world from science and art.
2) One of the most important abilities of a designer is the development of character.
3) Design is a form of action, expression, and service that is always unique in some degree to its context.
4) The mindset of design is characterized by being adequate, not comprehensive, and being intentional over reactionary.
Some key definitions and thoughts that I found especially thought-provoking:
> Goal of design: "Designers from any design field, formally defined or not, can relate to other designers because they all are striving toward the same goal; they are hoping to add to, or change, the real world. They do this through their service-related creativity and innovation, in both particular and universal ways." (p. 22)
> Design Wisdom, "Inquiry for action. Actions creating the right thing, for the right people, at the right time, in the right place, in the right way, for the right reasons is design wisdom." (p.217)
> Systems matter. "Reductionist approaches in thinking and intervention separate and isolate function from teleological ends while ignoring altogether intentional aims. But what we argue here is that the understanding and improvement or optimization of functional members and elements of a system in isolation from the intention, purpose, or ends of a system is not possible. The relationships between functional activity and teleological considerations are as important as the connections between system elements." (p.76)
> Knowing "what is" is not enough. "Description and explanation - science - do not prescribe action, nor do prediction and control - technology - justify action. Around the world, billions of dollars are spent on studies and projects based on science and technology. This is done in the belief that rubbing the two together will generate the spark of prescriptive action. Unfortunately, this never happens, because the spark must flare from a different source." (p. 106)
>What do you design? "There is a trend in design schools and design professions focused on creating things that "change behavior." The confluence of those who like to tell people what to do and those who like to be told what to do seems to be growing. Unfortunately, too little is being done to enable people to understand and accept the challenge of being human - in other words, "lame gods" - possessing the skills to make almost anything happen, but lacking the competency to discern which among all the possibilities actually ought to be done. As designers, we have the freedom to chose whether we create stuff, things, or junk. Our responsibility of course is to better understand how best to bring the right things into existence, for the right reasons, for the right people, at the right time and place." (p. 248).
I intend to come back and add more. It is just too darn good.
August 14, 2014
I really liked Thoughtful Interaction Design, so I thought I'd like this. Nope. It shares with Thoughtful Interaction Design a kind of obtuse prose, which served TID in making arguments from the ground up. Unfortunately, this book seems primarily to be based on a desire to elevate the status of design by codifying its methodology and the provenance thereof by finding intellectual precursors and creating a shared 'design epistemology'. Shaky already, it proceeds to not mention engineering and its methods even once in its nearly 300 pages, despite the clear parallels. It's possible that I just don't get it, or I'm not reading it slowly enough, or the points it's making that are supposed to be important are ones I'm already familiar with, or I just didn't read far enough to find the payoff. In any case, I found it more frustrating than anything.
January 16, 2014
"Judgment making is essential to design. It does not replicate decision making but it is as necessary. The ability to make solid design judgments is often what distinguishes a stellar designer from a mediocre one." - Quoted from chapter 8 of this book. If you like philosophising about design, inventing truckloads of fanciful jargon to describe your baseless generalisations, and finally coming up with conclusions that everyone else already knew, then this book is for you.
December 12, 2020
I am continously reading this book. Not easy to grasp, but lay the foundation for all methods like Design Thinking, Design Sprints, Design Whatever... A must, to go back to and reflect over the mindset behind tools and techniques. Absolutely phenomenal!
May 12, 2021
Gave up 30% into the book, not worth my time
August 1, 2021
A great book that I am going to have to read again.
August 25, 2020
Despite its academic/pedagogical immersion of jargons and abstractions, The Design Way offers a dozen thought-provoking "thinking platforms" for the reader to articulate the notion of design, designing, and designers, both philosophically and practically, from many angles and lenses.
That assisted articulation paves way for us to think beyond the conventional and pragmatic scope of design as a "business" or "profession," and to explore the nature of it - not for the sake of exploring, but for the sake of much deeper understanding.
It's not an easy read, but reading it has been rewarding. Veteran designers will find many resonant points expressed in more comprehensive ways, while being invited or challenged to think deeper or otherwise. Aspiring designers may be scared by its daunting delve into the abstract and philosophical, while identifying from it the very qualities they see in their idols, mentors, and leaders. Everyone may learn something useful and/or insightful, not necessarily about design itself, but definitely about how to think about design and designers.
For general readers who only want to make sense of and understand design, Scott Berkun's How Design Makes the World would be a great start.
For willing readers who really want to explore the professional milieu of design, Kees Dorst's Notes on Design: How Creative Practice Works may be a better follow-up.
But for designers, novice or veteran, The Design Way is one of those few books that have to be on your must-read list, for its profound depth of thinking, impressive breadth of viewpoints, and uncompromising challenge to your intellectual development.
That assisted articulation paves way for us to think beyond the conventional and pragmatic scope of design as a "business" or "profession," and to explore the nature of it - not for the sake of exploring, but for the sake of much deeper understanding.
It's not an easy read, but reading it has been rewarding. Veteran designers will find many resonant points expressed in more comprehensive ways, while being invited or challenged to think deeper or otherwise. Aspiring designers may be scared by its daunting delve into the abstract and philosophical, while identifying from it the very qualities they see in their idols, mentors, and leaders. Everyone may learn something useful and/or insightful, not necessarily about design itself, but definitely about how to think about design and designers.
For general readers who only want to make sense of and understand design, Scott Berkun's How Design Makes the World would be a great start.
For willing readers who really want to explore the professional milieu of design, Kees Dorst's Notes on Design: How Creative Practice Works may be a better follow-up.
But for designers, novice or veteran, The Design Way is one of those few books that have to be on your must-read list, for its profound depth of thinking, impressive breadth of viewpoints, and uncompromising challenge to your intellectual development.
January 25, 2013
I had this book for my Design Theory course taught by Prof. Erik Stolterman at Indiana University. Amazing read, if you get the gist of schemas and ideas being expressed in the book. I would highly recommend this book for designers interested in application of design thinking in other disciplines like business, pedagogy, art and architecture. Shoot me an email if you have any comments and/or recommendations about the book. I might drop by Erik's (Stolterman's) office for his thoughts :).
June 6, 2014
Not sure that I really bought all the arguments or found them particularly enlightening. I think one thing that would have helped was more concrete examples, as it's clear the authors have experiences they're referring to but by refusing to get too specific make it difficult to know for sure you're translating their arguments correctly. Still, there are a few gems in the book.
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March 29, 2014Deeply probes the practice of design. To the mature designer a truly accurate codification of the design experience... For everyone else probably a bit academic. Still, an illuminating book that deeply explains design.
August 14, 2016
An inspiring, very clever, intense bit of research on design the design process from a variety of perspectives. Designers who like to think as well as make will enjoy it.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews