Design process & methods

Design
Process & Methods
L.Galli
(2011-2013)
Copyright of this presentation is by referred sources for quoted/reproduced content (text & images) and/or Luca Galli for original content.
Original content by Luca Galli is released as Creative Commons License BY-NC-ND 2.0

This short deck is mainly meant to help with my Design Studies
lessons to undergraduate students at NABA, Media Design and
Multimedia Arts School, Milan (http://www.lgalli.it/teaching/).
These slides are supposed to come with a live commentary for
the class; sorry if you wish to have more explicit context and
liaisons. Please see referred sources to this purpose.

What is designing?
John Chris Jones opening question in
Design Methods, 1970-1992
L.Galli Design Process & Methods
J.C.Jones 1970-1992, Design Methods,Wiley; see also J.C.Jones What is Designing? in Clark-Brody 2009 (ed. by), Design Studies, Berg

Rather than pursue the question “What is design?” [...]
let us ask a different (and perhaps better) question:
“What is the archetypical activity of design”?
Bill Buxton, 2007
B.Buxton 2007, Sketching User Experiences, Morgan Kaufmann, p.97

For Jones (1992) the answer would be drawing [...]
Fallman’s answer [...] would be sketching.
In agreeing with him, I am not alone.
Bill Buxton, 2007
B.Buxton 2007, Sketching User Experiences, Morgan Kaufmann, p.97

Photo credits:“Sketching” by NathanaelB - Nathanael Boehm (2010) published under Creative Commons terms CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Retrieved on Flickr http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/purecaffeine/4325067780/

Photo credits:“Prototyping at OpenAustralia hackfest” by NathanaelB - Nathanael Boehm (2009) published under Creative Commons
terms CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 - Retrieved on Flickr http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/purecaffeine/3621432701/sizes/o/

Sketching in HCI [Human-Computer Interaction]
differs in some ways from sketching in other design ﬁelds
[because of] the need to deal with issues such as
interactivity, temporality, tangibility,
immersion, sound and haptics [...]
Daniel Fallman, 2003
D.Fallman 2003, Design-oriented Human-Computer Interaction, CHI 2003 Proceedings,ACM

B.Buxton 2007, Sketching User Experiences, Morgan Kaufmann

Some deﬁnitions of process:
[...] progress, advance <in the process of time>; [...]
a series of actions or operations conducing to an end;
Middle English proces, from Anglo-French procés,
from Latin processus, from procedere. [...]
Merriam-Webster
Merriam-Webster, consulted online on 27th Apr. 2013 http://www.merriam-webster.com

In most professions, process is a dirty word [...]
But in design, nothing could be further from the truth.
For designers, process is the language of rigor,
and a particular process
nearly guarantees a desired outcome.
Jon Kolko, 2013
J.Kolko (2013) Trusting the design process, in Interactions

[...] we had better look outside the process itself
and try to deﬁning design by its results.
J.C. Jones, 1970-1992
J.C. Jones 1970-1992, Design Methods,Wiley

Look at the chain of events that begin with
the sponsor’s wish and moves through the actions of
designers, manufacturers, distributors, consumers
to the ultimate effects of a newly designed thing
upon the world at large
J.C. Jones, 1970-1992
John Chris Jones 1970-1992, Design Methods,Wiley

J.C. Jones (badly) interpolated to look for
some media design emphasis:
“Look at the chain of events that begin with
the [client/investor/producer]’s wish and moves
through the actions of
[agencies/studios/suppliers], [retailers]
and [audience/users/people]
to the ultimate effects of a newly designed
[media/service/hybrid(*)] upon the world at large”
cf. J.C. Jones 1970-1992, Design Methods,Wiley; insertions are mine.
See also B. Latour 1993,We have never been modern, Harvard University Press
(*) Hybrids à la Bruno Latour

[...] the effect of designing is
to initiate change in man-made things.
J.C. Jones, 1970-1992

Photo credits:“Untitled” by By M0J0jojo - Jojo Korsh (2011) published under Creative Commons terms CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Retrieved on Flickr http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/jojofosho/6333830266/

Notice a number of roles, or “stakeholders”(*).
Roles are played by actors
(some actors play more than one role at once,
but monologues are very rare;
we design for others, if not for all).
(*) “Stakeholders” is a form of bad “ofﬁce jargon” according to some. I tend to agree.
See the article of Steven Poole quoted in the footer.
Re:”Stakeholders”, see Steven Poole, 10 of the worst examples of management-speak, 25th Apr. 2013,The Guardian, consulted online,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/apr/25/top-10-worst-management-speak?CMP=twt_gu

Bill Buxton’s (double) design funnel
see B.Buxton 2007, Sketching User Experiences, Morgan Kaufmann, p.144

see John Chris Jones 1970-1992, Design Methods,Wiley
Divergence Transformation Convergence
J.C. Jones’ design phases

Methodology should not be a ﬁxed track
to a ﬁxed destination but a conversation
about everything that could be made of happen.
Jones, 1970-1992

Starting
point
Design Process
Focal
point
Elaboration
Opportunity-seeking:
from singular to multiples
Reduction
Decision-making:
from broad to speciﬁc
see B.Buxton 2007, Sketching User Experiences, Morgan Kaufmann, p.144
Bill Buxton’s design funnel (in detail)

Methods & techniques
(there are many of them and
they apply all along the process)

Design methods are like toothbrushes.
Everyone uses them,
but no one likes to use someone else’s.
John Zimmerman, 2011
John Zimmerman quoted by Steve Harrison and Deborah Tatar 2011, On Methods, in Interactions,ACM

Listed below there are a few very notable books on design
process and methods that I would recommend.
Design Methods (1970-1992), by John Chris Jones,
is a classic title on the topic.
Design Research (2003), edited by Brenda Laurel, while
focused on research, it is also relevant for design in general.
The same it goes for Sketching User Experiences (2007),
by Bill Buxton, which combines discussions on interaction
design, design history and technology R&D.
Universal Methods of Design (2012), by Bruce Hanington
and Bella Martin, is an extensive survey that follows the
similarly conceived Universal Principles of Design
(2003-2010), by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden
and Jill Butler.

References:
Bill Buxton (2007) Sketching User Experiences, Morgan Kaufmann
Hazel Clark and David Brody (2009) ed. by, Design Studies.A Reader, Berg
Daniel Fallman (2003) Design-oriented Human-Computer Interaction, CHI 2003
Proceedings,ACM
Steve Harrison and Deborah Tatar (2011) On Methods, in Interactions vol. XVIII
n. 2, ACM
John Chris Jones (1970-1992) Design Methods,Wiley
Jon Kolko (2013) Trusting the design process, in Interactions vol. XX, n. 2, ACM

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