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Wicked Problems in Design Thinking

April 1992
Design Issues 8(2):5–21

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Abstract Only critical distancing let Godard value the premonitory potential of film, and at the same time, point out the incapacity to register the realness that it generated. The filmmaker has always believed that “film is prophetic, it predicts and announces things”, and that this condition corresponds to its essence as a record. Rancière in a lucid reading of Film History says that for Godard: “film is responsible for not filming fields in their time; great for filming them before their time and guilty for not knowing how to recognize them”. This article begins with these clear political propositions, as well as proposing some variations.

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Wicked Problems in Design Thinking

Author(s): Richard Buchanan

Source:

Design Issues,

Vol. 8, No. 2 (Spring, 1992), pp. 5-21

Published by: The MIT Press

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Richard Buchanan

Wicked

Problems

Design

Thinking

Introduction

Despite

efforts to discover

the foundations

of design

thinking

the fine arts,

the natural

sciences,

or most recently,

the social

sci-

ences, design

eludes reduction and

remains

a surprisingly

flexible

activity. No single definition of design, or branches of profes-

sionalized

practice such as

industrial or graphic design,

adequately

covers the

diversity

of ideas and methods

gathered together

under

the label.

Indeed,

the variety

of research

reported

in conference

papers, journal

articles, and

books suggests

that

design

continues

to expand

in its meanings

and connections,

revealing unexpected

dimensions

in practice

as well as understanding.

This follows the

trend of design thinking

in the

twentieth

century,

for

we have seen

design grow

from

a trade

activity

to a

segmentedprofession

to afield

for technical research and to what

now should be recognized

as a

new liberal

art of technological

culture.

It may seem

unusual to talk about

design

as a liberal

art,

par-

ticularly when many people are accustomed to identifying the

liberal arts with the traditional "arts

and sciences" that are

insti-

tutionalized

in colleges and universities. But the liberal arts

are

undergoing

a revolutionary transformation

in twentieth-century

culture,

and

design

is one of the

areas

in which

this

transformation

is strikingly

evident.

To understand the change that is now underway,

it is important

to recognize

that what are

commonly regarded as the liberal

arts

today

are

not

outside

of history. They

originated

in the

Renaissance

and underwent

prolonged

development that culminated

the

nine-

teenth

century

as a vision of an

encyclopedic education of beaux

arts,

belles

lettres,

history,

various

natural

sciences

and mathematics,

phi-

losophy, and

the fledgling social

sciences. This circle of learning

was divided into particular subject

matters, each with a proper

method

or set of methods suitable to its exploration. At their

peak

as liberal

arts,

these

subject

matters

provided

integrated under-

standing

of human experience and the

array of available

knowledge.

By the end of the nineteenth

century, however, existing

subjects

were

explored with progressively

more refined methods, and

new

subjects

were added to accord

with advances

in knowledge.

As a

This essay is based on a paper

presented

'Colloque Recherches sur le Design:

Incitations, Implications, Interactions,"

the

first French university symposium on

design research held October 1990 at

l'Universit6 de Technologie

de Compiegne,

Compiegne, France.

Design Issues: Vol. VIII, Number 2 Spring 1992 5

result,

the circle

of learning

was further

divided

and subdivided,

until

all

that remained

was a patchwork

quilt

of specializations.

Today,

these

subject

matters

retain

an echo of their

old status

liberal

arts,

but

they

flourish

specialized

studies,

leading

to the

perception

of an ever

rich

and detailed

array

of facts

and

val-

ues.

Although

these

subjects

contribute

to the advance

of knowledge,

they

also

contribute

to its

fragmentation,

as they

have become

pro-

gressively narrow in scope, more numerous, and have lost

"connection

with each

other

and

with the common

problems

and

matters

of daily life from which they select aspects

for precise

methodological

analysis."

The search

for new integrative

disci-

plines

to complement

the arts

and

sciences

has

become

one of the

central

themes

of intellectual

and practical

life

in the

twentieth

cen-

tury. Without integrative disciplines of understanding,

communication,

and

action,

there

is little

hope

of sensibly

extend-

ing knowledge

beyond

the library

or laboratory

in order

to serve

the

purpose

of enriching

human

life.

The emergence

of design

thinking

in the twentieth

century

important

in this context.

The significance

of seeking

a scientific

basis

for design

does

not lie in the likelihood

of reducing

design

one or another

of the sciences-an

extension

of the neo-positivist

project

and

still presented

in these

terms

by some

design

theorists

Rather,

it lies in a concern

to connect

and

integrate

useful

knowl-

edge

from the arts

and sciences

alike,

but in ways that are

suited

to the problems

and

purposes

of the present.

Designers,

are

explor-

ing concrete

integrations

of knowledge

that

will combine

theory

with practice

for new productive

purposes,

and

this is the reason

why we turn

to design

thinking

for

insight

into

the

new liberal

arts

of technological

culture3

Design and Intentional Operations

The beginning

of the study

of design

as a liberal

art can

be traced

to the

cultural upheaval

that

occurred

in the early

part

of the

twen-

tieth century.

The key feature

of this upheaval

was described

John

Dewey in The

Questfor

Certainty

the

perception

of a

new

center

of the universe.

The old

center

of the

universe

was the

mind

knowing

by.

means

of an

equipment

powers

complete

within

itself,

and

merely

exercised upon

antecedent

external

mate-

rial

equally

complete

within itself.

The new center

indefinite

interactions

taking

place

within a course

nature

which

not

fixed and

complete,

but

which

capa-

ble of direction

to new

and

different

results

through

the

mediation

of intentional

operations.'

What Dewey describes

here

is the root of the difference

between

the

old and

new liberal

arts,

between

specialization

in the

facts

of a

subject

matter

and

the

use of new

disciplines

of integrative

thinking.

1) From Richard McKeon, "The

Transformation

of the

Liberal

Arts

the Renaissance,"

Developments

the

Early

Renaissance,

ed.

Bernard

Levy (Albany:

State University of

New York

Press,

1972),

168-69.

2) Neo-positivism,

pragmatism,

and

var-

ious forms

of phenomenology

have

strongly

influenced

design

education

and practice

in the

twentieth

century.

If design theory has often tended

toward

neo-positivism,

design

prac-

tice has tended

toward

pragmatism

and pluralism,

with

phenomenologists

in both

areas.

Such

philosophical

dif-

ferences

are

illustrated

the

split

that

developed

between

the

theoretical

and

studio

courses

at the

Hochschule

fur

Gestaltung

(HfG)

Ulm before

its clos-

ing. The split between theory and

practice

design

is an

echo

of the

dif-

ference

between

the predominantly

neo-positivist

philosophy

of science

and

the exceptionally

diverse

philoso-

phies

of practicing

scientists.

Design

history,

theory,

and criticism

could

benefit

from closer

attention

to the

pluralism

of views that

guide

actual

design practice.

3) Walter

Groupius

was one of the

first to

recognize

the beginnings

of a new

lib-

eral

art

in design.

In an

essay

written

in 1937,

he reflected

on the

founding

of the Bauhaus as an institution

grounded

on the idea

of an architec-

tonic art: "Thus

the Bauhaus

was

inaugurated

in 1919

with the

specific

object

of realizing

a modern

architec-

tonic

art,

which

human

nature

was

meant

to be

all-embracing

its scope.

. . . Our guiding

principle

was that

design

is neither

an intellectual

nor

material

affair,

but

simply

integral

part

of the stuff

of life,

necessary

for

everyone

civilized

society."

Scope

of Total Architecture

(New York:

Collier Books,

1970),

19-20.

The

term

"architectonic,"

in this

case,

transcends

the derivative

term "architecture"

it is commonly

used in the modern

world.

Throughout

Western

culture,

the liberal arts have similarly

been

described

as "architectonic"

because

of their integrative

capacity.

Groupius

appeared

to understand

that

architec-

ture,

regarded

a liberal

art

in its own

right

in the ancient

world,

was only

one manifestation

of the

architecton-

ic art of design in the twentieth

century.

4) John

Dewey,

The

Quest

for

Certainty:

A Study

of the

Relation

of Knowledge

and Action (1929;

rpt. New York:

Capricorn

Books,

1960),

290-91.

Dewey observes,

however,

that

the meaning

and

implications

of the new direction

are

still

not fully understood.

Nowadays

we have

messy conjunction

of notions

that

are consistent

neither with one another

nor with the

tenor of our actual life.

Knowledge

is still

regarded by

most

thinkers

as direct

grasp

of ultimate

reality,

although

the

practice

of knowing

has been

assimilated

to the

pro-

cedure of the useful

arts;-involving,

that

is to say, doing

that

manipulates and

arranges

natural

energies.

Again

while science is said to lay hold of reality,

yet "art"

instead of being

assigned

lower

rank is equally

esteemed

and honored.

Carrying

these observations

further,

Dewey explores

the new

rela-

tionship

between

science, art,

and

practice.

He suggests

Experience

and Nature

that

knowledge

is no longer

achieved

by direct con-

formity of ideas with the fixed orders

of nature;

knowledge

achieved

by a new kind of art directed

toward orders of change.

But if modern tendencies are

justified

putting

art and

creation

first, then the implications

of this position

should be avowed and

carried

through.

It would then

be seen that science

is an art, that art is practice,

and

that the

only distinction

worth

drawing

is not between

practice

and

theory,

but

between those modes of prac-

tice that are not intelligent, not inherently and

immediately

enjoyable, and those which are full of

enjoyed

meanings.

Although the neo-positivists

courted

Dewey for a time,

it was

apparent

that his understanding of the development of science

the twentieth

century

was quite

different

from their

understand-

ing7.

Instead

of treating science

as primary and

art as secondary,

Dewey pointed

toward

science as art.

The

consideration

that

completes

the

ground

for assim-

ilating science to art is the fact that assignment of

scientific

status

in any given case

rests

upon facts which

are

experimentally produced.

Science

is now the

prod-

uct

of operations

deliberately

undertaken

in conformity

with

a plan or

project that

has the

properties of a work-

ing hypothesis.

What

Dewey

means

by "art"

in this

context

is crucial

to understand-

ing the new

role of design and

technology in contemporary

culture.

After a

period

which

natural

knowledge

progressed by

borrowing

from the

industrial

crafts,

science

entered upon

period

of steady

and

ever-accelerated

growth

by means

of deliberate

invention of such appliances on its own

account.

order to mark this

differential feature

of the art

which is science,

I shall

now use the

word

"technology."

... Because

technologies,

circular

relationship between

the

arts

of production

and

science has

been

established.

5) John Dewey, Experience and Nature

(1929; rpt. New York: Dover

Publications, Inc., 1958), 357.

6) Dewey, Experience and Nature, 357-

58.

7) The neo-positivist International

Encyclopedia of Unified Science,

which included Charles Morris's

Foundations of the Theory of Signs,

also included Dewey's Theory of

Valuation. However, Dewey's Logic

was ignored or ridiculed by neo-pos-

itivist logicians and grammarians.

8) John Dewey, "By Nature and By Art,"

Philosophy of Education (Problems

of Men) (1946; rpt. Totowa, New

Jersey:

Littlefield, Adams, 1958),

288.

9) Dewey, "By Nature and By Art," 291-

92.

Design Issues: Vol. VIII, Number 2 Spring 1992 7

What Dewey defines as technology is not what is commonly

understood

in today's philosophy of technology.

Instead of mean-

ing knowledge

of how to make and use artifacts or the artifacts

themselves,

technology for Dewey is an art of experimental think-

ing. It is, in fact,

intentional operations

themselves carried out in

the

sciences, the

arts of production," or social

and political action.

We mistakenly

identify technology with one particular type of

product-hardware-that may result from experimental think-

ing,

but

overlook

the art that lies behind and

provides the basis for

creating other

types of products.

From this

perspective, it is easy to understand why design and

design thinking continue to expand their

meanings and connec-

tions in contemporary culture. There is no area

of contemporary

life

where design-the plan, project,

working

hypothesis which

constitutes the "intention"

in intentional

operations-is not a sig-

nificant factor in shaping human experience.

Design even extends

into the core of traditional scientific

activities,

where it is employed

to cultivate the subject matters that are the focus of scientific

curiosity. But perceiving

the existence of such an art

only opens

the door to further

inquiry, to explain

what that art is, how it

operates,

and

why it succeeds or fails

in particular

situations. The

challenge

is to gain

a deeper understanding

of design thinking

that more cooperation

and mutual benefit is possible between

those who apply

design thinking

to remarkably

different

problems

and

subject

matters. This will

help

to make the

practical

exploration

of design,

particularly in the arts of production,

more intelligent

and

meaningful.

However,

a persistent

problem

in this

regard

is that discussions

between

designers

and members

of the scientific

community

tend

to leave little room for reflection on the broader nature of design

and its relation to the arts and

sciences, industry

and manufactur-

ing, marketing and

distribution, and

the

general public

that

ultimately

uses the results of design thinking.

Instead of yielding productive

integrations,

the

result

is often confusion and a breakdown

of com-

munication,

with a lack of intelligent practice

to carry

innovative

ideas into

objective,

concrete embodiment.

turn,

this undermines

efforts to reach a clearer

understanding

of design

itself,

sometimes

driving designers

back into a defense of their work in the context

of traditional

arts

and

crafts.

Without

appropriate

reflection

to help

clarify

the

basis

of communication

among

all the

participants,

there

is little

hope

of understanding

the

foundations and

value of design

thinking

in an

increasingly complex technological

culture.

The Doctrine of Placements

By "liberal art"

I mean a discipline

of thinking

that

may

be shared

to some degree

by all men and

women in their

daily

lives and

is,

in turn,

mastered

by a few people who practice

the discipline

with

distinctive

insight

and sometimes advance it to new areas of inno-

10) For Dewey, the arts of production,

include the fine arts. He makes no sharp

distinction between fine and useful arts.

vative application.

Perhaps

this is what Herbert Simon meant in The

Sciences

of the Artificial, one of the major works of design theory

in the twentieth century, when he wrote: "the proper study of

mankind is the science of design, not only as the professional com-

ponent of a technical education but as a core discipline for every

liberally

educated

man."" One may reasonably

disagree

with aspects

of Simon's positivist and empiricist view of design as a science

(as one may disagree

with the pragmatic

principles

that stand

behind

Dewey's observation of the importance of intentional operations

in modern culture),"3

but there is little reason to disagree with the

idea that all men and women may benefit from an early under-

standing of the disciplines of design in the contemporary world.

The beginning of such an understanding has already turned the

study of the traditional arts and sciences toward a new engage-

ment with the problems of everyday experience, evident in the

development of diverse new products which incorporate knowl-

edge from many fields of specialized inquiry.

To gain some idea of how extensively design affects contem-

porary

life, consider the four broad

areas

in which design is explored

throughout the world by professional designers and by many oth-

ers who may not regard

themselves as designers. The first of these

areas is the design of symbolic and visual communications. This

includes the traditional work of graphic design, such as typogra-

phy and advertising,

book and magazine

production, and scientific

illustration, but has expanded into communication through pho-

tography, film, television, and computer display. The area of

communications design is rapidly evolving into a broad explo-

ration of the problems of communicating information, ideas, and

arguments through a new synthesis of words and images that is

transforming the "bookish culture" of the past.'4

The second area is the design of material objects.

This includes

traditional concern for the form and visual appearance

of everyday

products-clothing, domestic objects, tools, instruments, machin-

ery, and vehicles-but has expanded into a more thorough and

diverse interpretation of the physical, psychological, social, and

cultural

relationships

between products

and human beings.

This area

is rapidly evolving into an exploration of the problems of con-

struction in which form and visual appearance

must carry a deeper,

more integrative argument that unites aspects of art, engineering

and natural science, and the human sciences. 5

The third area

is the design of activities and organized services,

which includes the traditional management concern for logistics,

combining physical resources,

instrumentalities,

and human beings

in efficient sequences and schedules to reach specified objectives.

However, this area has expanded into a concern for logical deci-

sion making and strategic planning and is rapidly evolving into an

exploration of how better design thinking can contribute to achiev-

ing an organic

flow of experience

in concrete

situations,

making

such

11)

Herbert

A. Simon,

The Sciences

of the

Artificial (Cambridge:

M.I.T. Press,

1968), 83

12)

Although

Simon's

The Sciences

of the

Artificial

is cited repeatedly

design

literature

because

of its definition

design,

it is often read

with little

atten-

tion given to the full argument.

careful

analysis

from the standpoint

of industrial design

would

be a use-

ful contribution

to the

literature.

Such

a reading

would

reveal the positivist

features

of Simon's

approach

and

help

to explain

why many

designers

are

somewhat disenchanted with the

book. Nonetheless, it remains

exceptionally

useful work.

13)

See Richard

Buchanan,

"Design

and

Technology

in the

Second

Copernican

Revolution,"

Revue

des sciences

techniques

de la conception (The

Journal of Design Sciences and

Technology,

January,

1992),

1:1.

14)

The

phrase

"bookish

culture"

is used

by literary

critic

George

Steiner

and

is a theme

in a forthcoming

book

Ivan

Illich,

the

Vineyard

of the

Text.

15)

The design

of material

objects

includes,

of course,

new

work in materials sci-

ence,

where

a highly

focused form of

design

thinking

is evident.

Design Issues: Vol. VIII, Number 2 Spring 1992 9

experiences more intelligent, meaningful, and satisfying. The cen-

tral theme of this area

is connections and consequences. Designers

are exploring a progressively wider range of connections in every-

day experience and how different types of connections affect the

structure of action.'6

The fourth area is the design of complex systems or environ-

ments for living, working, playing, and learning. This includes the

traditional

concerns of systems engineering, architecture, and urban

planning or the functional analysis of the parts of complex wholes

and their subsequent integration in hierarchies. But this area has

also expanded and reflects more consciousness of the central idea,

thought, or value that expresses the unity of any balanced and func-

tioning whole. This area

is more and more concerned with exploring

the role of design in sustaining, developing, and integrating

human

beings into broader ecological and cultural environments, shaping

these environments when desirable and possible or adapting to

them when necessary.

Reflecting on this list of the areas

of design thinking, it is tempt-

ing to identify and limit specific design professions within each

area-graphic designers with communication, industrial

designers

and engineers

with material

objects, designers-cum-managers

with

activities and

services,

and

architects and urban

planners

with systems

and environments. But this would not be adequate,

because these

areas are not simply categories of objects that reflect the results of

design. Properly understood and used, they are

also

places of inven-

tion shared

by all

designers, places

where one discovers the dimensions

of design thinking by a reconsideration

of problems and solutions.

True, these four areas

point toward certain kinds of objectivi-

ty in human experience, and the work of designers in each of these

areas has created a framework for human experience in contem-

porary culture. But these areas are also interconnected, with no

priority given to any single one. For example,

the sequence of signs,

things, actions, and thought could be regarded as an ascent from

confusing parts to orderly wholes. Signs and images are

fragments

of experience

that

reflect

our perception

of material objects. Material

objects, in turn, become instruments of action. Signs, things, and

actions are organized in complex environments by a unifying idea

or thought. But there is no reason to believe that parts and wholes

must be treated in ascending rather than descending order. Parts

and whole are of many types and may be defined in many ways. 8

Depending on how a designer

wishes to explore and organize expe-

rience,

the sequence

could just as reasonably

be regarded

as a descent

from chaotic environments to the unity provided by symbols and

images. In fact, signs, things, actions, and thoughts are not only

interconnected, they also interpenetrate and merge in contempo-

rary design thinking with surprising consequences for innovation.

These areas

suggest the lineage of design's past and present, as well

as point to where design is headed in the future.

16) Some of the psychological

and social

dimensions of this area

are

illustrated

works as diverse as George

A. Miller,

Eugene Galanter, and Karl

H. Pribram,

Plans and the Structure of

Behavior (New

York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston,

1960); Lucy Suchman, Plans

and Situated

Actions:

The Problem

of Human-

Machine Communication

(Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press,

1987); and

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,

Flow: The

Psychology

of Optimal

Experience

(New York: Harper

& Row, 1990).

17)

One of

the early

works

systems engi-

neering that influenced

design thinking

is Arthur D. Hall,

A Methodology

for

Systems Engineering (Princeton,

New

Jersey:

D. Van

Nostrand

Company,

1962). For more

recent developments

in systems thinking,

see Ron Levy,

"Critical Systems

Thinking: Edgar

Morin and the French School of

Thought," Systems

Practice,

vol. 4

(1990). Regarding

the new

"systemics,"

see

Robert

Flood and Werner

Ulrich,

"Testament

Conversations

on Critical

Systems Thinking Between Two

Systems Practitioners," Systems

Practice,

vol. 3 (1990), and M. C.

Jackson, "The Critical Kernel in

Modern Systems

Thinking," Systems

Practice,

vol. 3 (1990).

For an anthro-

pological approach

systems,

seeJames

Holston, The Modernist

City: An

Anthropological Critique

of Brasilia

(Chicago: University

of Chicago Press,

1989).

18) Compare

the

Platonic,

Aristotelian,

and

classic materialist treatments

of parts

and

wholes.

These three

approaches

the

organization

of experience

are

well

represented

twentieth

century design

thinking.

For

example,

see

Christopher

Alexander,

Notes on the

Synthesis

Form

(Cambridge:

Harvard

University

Press, 1973).

It is easy to understand that industrial

designers

are

primarily con-

cerned with material

objects.

But the research

reported

in design

literature shows that industrial

designers

have

found new avenues

of exploration

by thinking

about material

objects

in the context

signs,

actions,

and thoughts.

For example,

some have considered

material

objects

communicative,

yielding

reflections on the

seman-

tic and rhetorical

aspects

of products.

Others have

placed

material

objects

in the context of experience

and

action,

asking

new ques-

tions about how products function

in situations of use and how

they may

contribute

to or inhibit the

flow of activities.

(Of course,

this is a significant shift from questions

about the internal

func-

tioning

of products and

how the

visual form of a

product

expresses

such

functioning.)

Finally,

others are

exploring

material

objects

part

of larger

systems, cycles,

and

environments,

opening

wide

range

of new questions and

practical concerns or reenergizing

old

debates. Issues

include conservation

and

recycling,

alternative

tech-

nologies, elaborate

simulation

environments,

"smart"

products,

virtual

reality,

artificial

life, and the

ethical,

political,

and

legal dimen-

sions of design.

Comparable

movements

are evident

in each

of the design pro-

fessions: their

primary

concern

begins

in one area, but innovation

comes

when the

initial selection is repositioned

at another

point

the framework,

raising

new questions and ideas.

Examples

of this

repositioning

abound. For example,

architecture has

traditionally

been

concerned with buildings

as large

systems

or environments.

For

nearly

twenty

years,

however,

group

of architects

have aggres-

sively sought to reposition architecture

in the context of signs,

symbols, and visual communication,

yielding the postmodern

experiment

and trends such as deconstructionist

architecture.

Oxymorons

such

"deconstructionist

architecture" are

often the

result of attempts

at innovative

repositioning.

They

indicate

a desire

to break old categories,

in the now familiar

and

accepted "con-

structivist art"

and "action

painting."

The

test,

of course,

is whether

experiments

in innovation

yield

productive

results, judged

by indi-

viduals and

by society

as a whole.'9

Some

experiments have

fallen

dead leaves at the

first

frost, swept

away

to merciful oblivion.

At present,

the results of deconstructionist

architecture

are mixed,

but the

experiment

will continue until

individuals or groups repo-

sition the problems of architecture and shift general attention

toward new questions.

A strikingly different

repositioning is now beginning

in the pro-

fession of graphic

design

and visual

communication. In the late

nineteenth

and

early

twentieth

centuries, graphic

design

was ori-

ented

toward

personal

expression

through image

making.

was

extension

of the expressiveness

of the fine arts,

pressed

into com-

mercial or scientific

service. This was

modified

under the influence

of "communication

theory"

and semiotics when the role of the

graphic

designer

was shifted

toward that of an

interpreter

of mes-

19) Such

judgments are the

measure

of objec-

tivity in

contemporary

design thinking.

Without

objectivity to ground

the possi-

bilities discoveredin

design,

design thinking

becomes

design sophistry.

20) Architect Richard

Rogers

seeks to repo-

sition the problems of architecture

in a

new perception of multiple

overlapping

systems, rejecting

the notion of a sys-

tem as "linear, static, hierarchical and

mechanical order." According to

Rogers: "Today we know that design

based on linear reasoning must be

superseded by an open-ended archi-

tecture of overlapping systems. This

'systems' approach

allows us to appre-

ciate the world as an indivisible whole;

we are, in architecture, as in other fields,

approaching a holistic ecological view

of the globe and the way we live on it."

Architecture: A Modern View (New

York:

Thames

and

Hudson Inc., 1991),

58. Rogers's notion of "indeterminate

form" derives

not from the ideas of lit-

erary deconstruction but from his

innovative view of multiple systems.

For more

on Rogers's pointed criticism

of postmodern architecture from the

perspective of multiple systems, see

Architecture:

A Modern View, 26.

Design Issues: Vol. VIII, Number 2 Spring 1992 11

sages. For example, the graphic designer introduced emotional col-

orings of corporate or public "messages" or, in technical terms,

the graphic designer "coded" the corporate message. As a result,

the products of graphic design were viewed as "things" or "enti-

ties" (material texts) to be "decoded" by spectators. Recently,

however, a new approach in graphic design thinking has begun to

question the essentially linguistic or grammatical approach of com-

munications theory and semiotics by regarding visual

communication as persuasive argumentation. As this work unfolds,

it will likely seek to reposition graphic design within the dynam-

ic flow of experience and communication, emphasizing rhetorical

relationships among graphic designers, audiences, and the content

of communication. In this situation, designers would no longer be

viewed as individuals who decorate messages, but as communica-

tors who seek to discover convincing arguments by means of a

new synthesis of images and words. In turn, this will shift atten-

tion toward audiences

as active

participants

in reaching

conclusions

rather than passive recipients of preformed messages.

What works for movements within a design profession also

works for individual designers and their clients in addressing spe-

cific problems. Managers of a large retail chain were puzzled that

customers had difficulty navigating through their stores to find

merchandise. Traditional

graphic design yielded larger signs but no

apparent improvement in navigation-the larger

the sign, the more

likely people were to ignore it. Finally,

a design consultant

suggested

that the problem should be studied from the perspective of the

flow of customer experience. After a period of observing shoppers

walking through stores, the consultant concluded that people often

navigate among different sections of a store by looking for the

most familiar and representative examples of a particular type of

product. This led to a change in display strategy, placing those

products that people are most likely to identify in prominent posi-

tions. Although this is a minor example, it does illustrate a double

repositioning of the design problem: first, from signs to action,

with an insight that people look for familiar

products to guide their

movements; second, from action to signs,

a redesign

of display strat-

egy to employ products themselves as signs or clues to the

organization of a store.

There are so many examples of conceptual repositioning in

design that it is surprising

no one has recognized the systematic pat-

tern of invention that lies behind design thinking in the twentieth

century. The pattern is found not in a set of categories

but in a rich,

diverse, and changing set of placements, such as those identified

by signs, things, actions, and thoughts.

Understanding the difference between a category and a place-

ment is essential if design thinking is to be regarded as more than

a series of creative accidents. Categories have fixed meanings that

are

accepted

within the framework of a theory or a philosophy, and

21) Although

stil a common and

usefuil

way

of studying

visual communication,

this

approach

has lost some of its initial force

in actual design practice

because

it has

moved into personal

idiosyncracy

and a

for novelty,

which often distracts

one from the central

tasks of effective

communication. This is evident, for

example, among

those graphic

designers

who have made pedestrian readings

deconstructionist literary theory the

rationale

for their

work. Visual experi-

mentation

important part

of graphic

design thinking, but experimentation

must

finally

be judged

by relevance and

effectiveness

of communication.

For a

discussion of the limits

of semiotics and

design, see Seppo Vakeva, "What Do

We Need Semiotics For?," Semantic

Visions in Design, ed. Susann Vihma

(Helsinki:

University

of Industrial Arts

UIAH, 1990), g-2.

22) Swiss

graphic

designer

Ruedi

Ruegg

has

recently spoken of the need for more

fantasy

and freedom in graphic

design

thinking. Based on his approach, one

might argue that efforts to introduce

deconstructionist literary theory into

graphic

design

have often led to a loss of

freedom and imagination in effective

communication,

contrary

to the claims

of its proponents.

serve as the basis for analyzing

what already

exists. Placements

have boundaries to shape

and constrain

meaning,

but are

not rigid-

ly fixed and determinate. The boundary

of a placement gives a

context

or orientation

to thinking,

but the application

to a specif-

ic situation

can generate

a new perception

of that situation

and,

hence,

a new possibility

to be tested.

Therefore, placements

are

sources

of new ideas and

possibilities

when

applied

to problems

concrete circumstances

As an ordered

or systematic approach to the invention of possi-

bilities, the doctrine of placements provides a useful means of

understanding

what many designers

describe as the intuitive or

serendipitous

quality

of their work.

Individual

designers

often

pos-

sess a

personal

set

of placements, developed and

tested

by experience.

The

inventiveness of the designer

lies

in a natural

or cultivated and

artful ability

to return to those

placements

and

apply

them

to a

new

situation,

discovering aspects

of the situation

that affect the final

design. What

is regarded

the designer's style,

then,

is sometimes

than

just

personal

preference

for certain

types

of visual

forms,

materials,

or techniques;

it is a characteristic

way of seeing possibil-

ities

through

conceptual placements. However,

when a designer's

conceptual placements

become

See also an interview

with Rittel, "Son

of Rittelthink," Design Methods

Group

5th Anniversary Report January 1972),

5-10; and Horst Rittel, "On the

Planning Crisis: Systems Analysis of

the First and Second Generations,"

Bedriftsokonomen,

no. 8:

390-96. Rittel

gradually

added

more properties

to his

initial list.

39) Weltanschauung

identifies the intellec-

tual perspective of the designer as an

integral part of the design process.

40) This property suggests the systems

aspect of Rittel's approach.

41) Rittel's example is drawn from archi-

tecture,

where it is not feasible to rebuild

a flawed building. Perhaps

the general

property should be described as

.entrapment"

in a line of design think-

ing. Designers

as well as their

clients or

managers

are often "entrapped"

dur-

ing the development phase of a new

product and are unable, for good or

bad

reasons,

to terminate a weak

design.

For a brief illustration of entrapment

in the product development process of

a small midwestern company, see

Richard

Buchanan,

"Wicked Problems:

Managing the Entrapment Trap,"

Innovation (Summer, 1991), 10:3.

under-determined, requiring further investigation to make them

more fully determinate.

But they are not radically

indeterminate

a way directly comparable

to that of design.

Designers conceive their subject matter

in two ways on two lev-

els: general and particular.

On a general level, a designer forms an

idea or a working hypothesis about the nature of products or the

nature of the humanmade

in the world. This is the designer's view

of what is meant, for example, by the "artificial" in relation to the

"natural."

In this sense,

the designer

holds a broad view of the nature

of design and the proper scope of its application. Indeed, most

designers, to the degree that they have reflected on their discipline,

will gladly, if not insistently, explain on a general level what the

subject matter of design is. When developed and well presented,

these explanations

are

philosophies or proto-philosophies of design

that exist within a plurality of alternative views. 3 They provide an

essential framework for each

designer

to understand and explore

the

materials, methods, and principles of design thinking. But such

philosophies do not and cannot constitute sciences of design in the

sense of any natural, social, or humanistic science. The reason for

this is simple: design is fundamentally concerned with the particu-

lar, and there is no science of the particular.

In actual practice, the designer

begins with what should be called

a quasi-subject matter, tenuously existing within the problems and

issues of specific circumstances. Out of the specific possibilities of

a concrete situation, the designer must conceive a design that will

lead to this or that particular product. A quasi-subject matter is

not an undetermined subject waiting to be made determinate. It is

an indeterminate subject waiting to be made specific and concrete.

For example,

a client's brief does not present

a definition of the sub-

ject matter of a particular design application. It presents a problem

and a set of issues to be considered in resolving that problem. In

situations where a brief specifies in great detail the particular fea-

tures of the product to be planned, it often does so because an

owner, corporate executive, or manager

has attempted to perform

the critical task of transforming problems and issues into a work-

ing hypothesis about the particular

features of the product to be

designed.

In effect,

someone has attempted

to take the "wickedness"

out. Even in this situation, however, the conception of particular

features remains only a possibility that may be subject to change

through discussion and argument.

This is where placements take on special significance as tools of

design thinking. They allow the designer to position and reposi-

tion the problems and issues at hand. Placements are the tools by

which a designer intuitively or deliberately shapes a design situa-

tion, identifying the views of all participants, the issues which

concern

them, and

the invention

that

will serve as a working hypoth-

esis for exploration and development. In this sense, the placements

selected by a designer are the same as what determinate subject

42) There is one case

in which even the

sub-

ject matters of the sciences are

indeterminate. The

working hypothe-

ses of scientists invariably

reflect

distinctive philosophic

perspectives

and interpretations of

what constitutes

nature and natural processes.

This

is a

factor

accounting

for

the

surprising

pluralism of philosophies

among prac-

ticing scientists and suggests

that even

science is shaped by an

application

design thinking,

developed along

the

lines of Dewey's notion

of "intention-

al operations." Even from this

perspective, however,

scientists

are con-

cerned with understanding

the universal

properties of

what

is,

while designers

are

concerned

with

conceiving

and

plan-

ning

particular

that does not yet exist.

Indeterminacy

for

the

scientist

the

level of second-intention,

while the sub-

ject matter remains, at the level of

first-intention, determinate

in the man-

ner described. For the designer,

indeterminacy belongs

to both first-

and second-intention.

43) For

a brief

discussion

of different

con-

ceptions of subject

matter on this level

held by three contemporary

designers,

Ezio Manzini, Gaetano

Pesce, and

Emilio Ambaz,

see Richard

Buchanan,

"Metaphors,

Narratives,

and Fables

New Design

Thinking," Design

Issues

VII-1 (Fall, 1990): 78-84. Without

understanding

designer's

view of sub-

ject

matter

the

general

level,

there is

little

intelligibility

the shifts that occur

when a designer moves,

for example,

from

designing

domestic products to

graphic design

or architecture. Such

shifts

are

usually

described

in terms

the designer's "personality"

or "cir-

cumstances,"

rather than the continued

development

of a

coherent

intellectual

perspective

on the artificial.

44)

Failure

to include

professional

design-

ers as

early

possible

in the

product

development process is one of the

sources of entrapment

in corporate

culture. Professional

designers

should

recognized

for their

ability

to con-

ceive

products

as well as

plan

them.

Design Issues: Vol. VIII, Number 2 Spring 1992 17

matters

are for the scientist.

They are

the quasi-subject

matter of

design thinking, from which the designer fashions a working

hypothesis

suited to special

circumstances.

This helps to explain how design functions

an integrative

dis-

cipline. By using placements

to discover or invent a working

hypothesis,

the designer establishes

a principle

of relevance

for

knowledge

from the arts and sciences,

determining

how such

knowl-

edge

may be useful

to design

thinking

in a particular

circumstance

without

immediately

reducing

design to one or another

of these

dis-

ciplines. In effect, the working hypothesis that will lead to a

particular

product

is the principle

of relevance,

guiding the

efforts

of designers to gather

all available knowledge

bearing on how a

product

is finally

planned.

But

does the designer's

working hypothesis

or principle

of rele-

vance suggest

that

the product

itself is a determinate

subject

matter?

The answer involves

a critical

but often

blurred distinction

between

design

thinking

and the activity

of production

or making.

Once a

product

is conceived,

planned,

and produced,

it may indeed

become

an object

for study by any of the arts

and sciences-history, eco-

nomics,

psychology,

sociology,

or anthropology.

It may even

become

an object for study by a new humanistic science

of production

that

we could

call the "science of the artificial,"

directed

toward

under-

standing

the nature, form,

and uses of humanmade

products

in all

of their

generic

kinds.45

But in all such studies, the activities

of design

thinking

are

easily forgotten

or are reduced to the kind of product

that

finally produced.

The

problem

for

designers

is to conceive and

plan

what does not

yet exist,

and this occurs

the context

of the inde-

terminacy

of wicked

problems,

before

the

final

result

is known.

This

is the creative or inventive

activity

that Herbert Simon

has

in mind when

he speaks

of design

as a science

of the artificial.

What

he means is "devising

artifacts

to attain

goals"

or, more

broadly,

"doctrine

about

the design

process."46

In this sense,

Simon's

sci-

ence of the artificial is perhaps

closer to what Dewey means

technology as a systematic

discipline

of experimental

thinking.

However, Simon has little to say about the difference between

designing

product

and

making

it.

Consequently,

the "search"

pro-

cedures

and

decision-making protocols

that he

proposes

for

design

are

largely analytic,

shaped

by his philosophic

view of the deter-

minacies that

from the natural

laws that surround

artifacts.

For

all of the

insight

Simon

has

in distinguishing

the artificial

a domain

of humanmade

products

different

from

objects

created

natural

processes,

he does not capture

the radical

sense

in which

designers

explore

the essence

of what the artificial

may

in human

experience.

This is

a synthetic

activity

related to indeterminacy,

not

an activity

of making

what is undetermined

in natural

laws more

determinate

in artifacts.

In short,

Simon

appears

to have conflated

two sciences of the artificial:

an inventive

science

of design

think-

ing which has no subject matter aside from what the designer

45)

The

earliest example

of this science

Aristotle's

Poetics. Although

this

work

directed

toward

the

analysis

of liter-

ary productions and tragedy in

particular,

Aristotle

frequently

discusses

useful

objects

in terms

of the princi-

ples

of poetic

analysis.

"Poetics,"

from

the Greek

word for

"making,"

is used

Aristotle

to refer to productive

sci-

ence or the science

of the artificial,

which he

distinguishes

both

from

the-

oretic and practical

sciences. Few

investigators

have

recognized

that poet-

analysis

can

be extended

to the

study

of making

"useful" objects.

When

designer

and

architect

Emilio Ambaz

refers

the

"poetics

of the

pragmatic,"

he means

not only esthetic

or elegant

features

of everyday

objects,

but also

a method

discipline

of analysis

that

may

contribute to design

thinking.

46) Simon,

The

Sciences

of the Artificial,

52-53.

47)

For

Simon,

the

"artificial"

is an

"inter-

face" created within a materialist

reality:

have

shown

that

science

artificial phenomena is always in

imminent danger

of dissolving

and

vanishing.

The peculiar

properties

the artifact lie on the thin interface

between

the

natural

laws within it and

the natural

laws without."

Simon,

The

Sciences

of the Artificial,

57. This is

conceives it to be, and a science of existing humanmade products

whose nature Simon happens to believe is a manipulation

of mate-

rial and behavioral laws of nature.

Design is a remarkably supple discipline, amenable to radical-

ly different interpretations

in philosophy as well as in practice.

But

the flexibility of design often leads to popular misunderstanding

and clouds efforts to understand its nature. The history of design

is not merely

a history of objects. It is a history of the changing

views

of subject matter held by designers and the concrete objects con-

ceived, planned, and produced as expressions of those views. One

could go further and say that the history of design

history

is a record

of the design historians'

views regarding what they conceive to be

the subject matter of design.

We have been slow to recognize the peculiar indeterminacy of

subject

matter

in design

and its impact

on the nature of design think-

ing. As a consequence, each of the sciences that have come into

contact with design has tended to regard

design as an "applied"

ver-

sion of its own knowledge, methods, and principles. They see in

design an instance of their own subject matter

and treat design as a

practical

demonstration

of the scientific

principles

of that

subject

mat-

ter. Thus, we have the odd, recurring situation in which design is

alternately regarded

as "applied"

natural science, "applied" social

science, or "applied"

fine art. No wonder designers and members

of the scientific community often have difficulty communicating.

Design and Technology

Many problems remain to be explored

in establishing

design

as a lib-

eral

art of technological culture. But as it continues to unfold in the

work of individual

designers

and in reflection

on the nature of their

work,50 design is slowly restoring the richer meaning of the term

"technology" that was all but lost with the rise of the Industrial

Revolution. Most people continue to think of technology in terms

of its

product rather

than its form as a discipline

of systematic

think-

ing. They regard

technology as things and machines,

observing

with

concern that the machines

of our culture often appear

out of human

control,

threatening

to trap

and

enslave rather than liberate. But there

was a time in an earlier period of Western culture

when technology

was a human activity operating

throughout the liberal

arts. Every

liberal

art had its own technologia

or systematic

discipline.

To pos-

sess that

technology or discipline

of thinking

was to possess

the liberal

art,

to be human, and to be free in seeking one's place in the world.

Design also has a technologia, and it is manifested in the plan

for every new product. The plan is an argument, reflecting the

deliberations of designers and their efforts to integrate knowledge

in new ways, suited to specific circumstances and needs. In this

sense, design is emerging as a new discipline of practical reason-

ing and argumentation,

directed

by individual

designers

toward one

or another of its major thematic variations in the twentieth cen-

one expression of the positivist or

empiricist philosophy that guides

Simon's theory of design.

48) For Simon, the equivalent

of a wicked

problem is an "ill-structured prob-

lem." For Simon's views on how

ill-structured problems may be

addressed, see "The Structure of Ill-

Structured Problems," Models of

Discovery (Boston: D. Reidel, 1977),

305-25. This paper

has interesting

con-

nections with the doctrine of

placements because placements may

be used to organize and store memo-

ries, and Simon is particularly

concerned with the role of long-term

memory in solving ill-structured

prob-

lems. But Simon's methods are still

analytic, directed toward the discov-

ery of solutions in some sense already

known rather than the invention of

solutions yet unknown.

49) Although Simon's title, The Sciences

of the Artificial,

is a perfectly

adequate

translation of what we have come to

know in Western culture

as Aristotle's

Poetics, Simon seems unaware of the

humanistic tradition of poetic and

rhetorical

analysis of the artificial that

followed from Aristotle. This is not

an antiquarian

issue, because the study

of literary production-the artificial

formed

in words-prefigures the issues

that surround the study of the artifi-

cial in all other types of useful objects.

Aristotle carefully distinguished the

science of the artificial from the art of

rhetoric.

When Aristotle comes to dis-

cuss the thought that is presented in

an artificial object such as a tragedy,

he pointedly refers the reader to his

treatise on the inventive art of rhetoric

for the fullest elaboration

of the issue.

However, Simon deserves less criti-

cism for overlooking this connection

than humanists

who have been amaz-

ingly neglectful, if not scornful, of the

rise of design and technology in the

twentieth century.

50) One example of such reflection is the

interdisciplinary

conference "Discovering

Design,"

organized

by R. Buchanan

and

V. Margolin

and held at the University

of Illinois at Chicago in 1990. The col-

lected

papers

from this

conference will be

published as Discovering Design:

Explorations

in Design Studies.

51) Richard

McKeon,

"Logos:

Technology,

Philology,

and History,"

in Proceedings

of the XVth World Congress of

Philosophy:

Varna,

Bulgaria,

September

17-22, 1973 (Sofia: Sofia Press

Production Center, 1974),

3:481-84.

Design Issues: Vol. VIII, Number 2 Spring 1992 19

tury: design

as communication, construction, strategic planning,

systemic integration.52

The

power

of design as deliberation and

argument

lies in overcoming the limitations of mere verbal or

symbolic argument-the separation

of words and things, or the-

ory

and

practice

that remains a

source

of disruption and confusion

in contemporary

culture.

Argument

in design thinking moves

toward the concrete

interplay

and

interconnection of signs, things,

actions, and thoughts. Every designer's sketch, blueprint, flow

chart, graph, three-dimensional model, or other product propos-

al is an

example of such

argumentation.

However, there

persistent confusion about the different modes

argumentation employed by the various design professions. For

example,

industrial

design, engineering, and marketing each employ

the discipline

of design thinking, yet their

arguments

are often

framed in sharply

different

logical

modalities. Industrial

design

tends to stress what is

possible

in the

conception

and

planning of

products; engineering tends

to stress what is necessary

in consid-

ering materials, mechanisms, structures,

and

systems; while

marketing

tends to stress

what

is contingent

the

changing

atti-

tudes and

preferences

of potential

users. Because of these

modal

differences

in approaching design problems,

three

of the most

important professions

design thinking

are

often regarded

as bit-

ter

opponents

the

design enterprise, irreconcilably

distant

from

each other.54

What

design

a liberal art

contributes

to this

situation is

a new

awareness of how

argument

is the central theme that cuts across

the

many

technical

methodologies employed

in each

design pro-

fession.

Differences

of modality may

be complementary ways

arguing-reciprocal expressions

what conditions

and

shapes

the

"useful"

human

experience.

a liberal art

technological

cul-

ture, design points

toward

a new

attitude about the

appearance

products. Appearance

must

carry

a deeper, integrative argument

about the nature of

the

artificial

human

experience.

This

argument

is a

synthesis

of three lines

of reasoning:

the ideas

of designers

and

manufacturers

about

their

products;

the internal

operational logic

products;

and the desire and

ability

human

beings

to use

prod-

ucts

everyday

life

ways

that reflect

personal

and social values.

Effective

design depends

on the

ability

of designers

to integrate

all

three

lines

of reasoning.

But

not as isolated factors

that

can

added

together

a simple

mathematical

total,

or as isolated sub-

ject

matters that

can

be studied

separately

and

joined late

in the

product development process.

The new liberal art of design thinking

turning

to the

modality

of impossibility.

points,

for

example,

toward the

impossibility

rigid

boundaries between industrial

design, engineering,

and

mar-

keting.

points

toward the

impossibility of relying on any one of

the

sciences

(natural, social,

humanistic)

for

adequate

solutions to

what are the

inherently

wicked

problems

design thinking. Finally,

52) For Rittel's view of argumentation

design, see Rittel and Webber,

Dilemmas, 19. Also discussed in

Bazjanac, "Architectural

Design

Theory:

Models of the Design Process," Basic

Questions of Design Theory. Students

report

that late

in his career Rittel came

to recognize the affinity between his

approach

and rhetoric.

53) The necessary is sometimes referred

to as "capacity"

or "capability"

in engi-

neering. For a useful introduction to

engineering design, see M. J. French,

Invention and Evolution: Design in

Nature and Engineering

(Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1988).

54) Philip Kotler, the internationally rec-

ognized expert on marketing, has

suggested that what many industrial

designers

object to in marketing

should

not be regarded

as marketing itself,

but

as bad marketing. For new develop-

ments in marketing,

see Philip Kotler,

"Humanistic Marketing: Beyond the

Marketing Concept," Philosophical

and Radical Thought in Marketing,

eds. A. Fuat

Firat,

N. Dholakia, and R.

P. Bagozzi (Lexington,

Massachusetts:

Lexington Books, 1987).

it points toward

something

that is often

forgotten,

that what

many

people

call "impossible"

may actually

only be a limitation

of imag-

ination

that can be overcome

by better

design

thinking. This is not

thinking directed

toward a technological

"quick

fix"

in hardware

but toward

new integrations

of signs,

things,

actions, and

environ-

ments that

address the concrete

needs and values of human

beings

in diverse circumstances.

Individuals

trained

in the

traditional arts

and

sciences

may con-

tinue to be puzzled

by the neoteric

art of design."

But the masters

of this new liberal

art are

practical

men

and

women,

and

the dis-

cipline

of thinking

that

they

employ

is gradually

becoming

accessible

to all individuals

in everyday

life.

A common

discipline

of design

thinking-more than

the particular

products created

by that dis-

cipline today-is changing our culture, not only in its external

manifestations but in its internal

character.

55) "Neoteric" is a term often associated

in Western culture with the emergence

of new liberal arts. Neoteric arts are

arts of "new learning." For a discus-

sion of neoteric and paleoteric liberal

arts, see Richard Buchanan, "Design

as a Liberal Art," Papers: The 1990

Conference on Design Education,

Education Committee of the

Industrial Designers Society of

America (Pasadena,

CA, 1990).

Design Issues: Vol. VIII, Number 2 Spring 1992 21

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