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Design methods are procedures, techniques, aids, or tools for designing. They offer a number of different kinds of activities that a designer might use within an overall design process. Conventional procedures of design, such as drawing, can be regarded as design methods, but since the 1950s new procedures have been developed that are more usually grouped under the name of "design methods". What design methods have in common is that they "are attempts to make public the hitherto private thinking of designers; to externalise the design process".
Design methodology is the broader study of method in design: the study of the principles, practices and procedures of designing. (1984). 9780471102489, Wiley. ISBN 9780471102489
The movement developed through further conferences on new design methods in the UK and USA in the 1960s.Gregory, S. A. (ed.) The Design Method. Butterworth, UK.Broadbent, G. and A. Ward (eds) (1969) Design Methods in Architecture, Lund Humphries, UKMoore, G. T. (ed.) (1970) Emerging Methods in Environmental Design and Planning, MIT Press, USA. The first books on rational design methods,Asimow, M. (1962) Introduction to Design, Prentice-Hall, USA.Alexander, C. (1964) Notes on the Synthesis of Form, Harvard University Press, USA.Archer, L. B. (1965) Systematic Method for Designers, The Design Council, UK and on creative methodsGordon, W. J. (1961) Synectics, Harper & Row, USA.Osborn, A. F. (1963) Applied Imagination: Principles and Procedures of Creative Thinking, Scribener's Sons, USA. also appeared in this period.
New approaches to design were developing at the same time in Germany, notably at the Ulm School of Design (Hochschule für Gestaltung–HfG Ulm) (1953–1968) under the leadership of Tomás Maldonado. Design teaching at Ulm integrated design with science (including social sciences) and introduced new fields of study such as cybernetics, systems theory and semiotics into design education.Krampen, M. and G. Hörman (2003) The Ulm School of Design, Ernst & Sohn, Germany. p.85 Bruce Archer also taught at Ulm, and another influential teacher was Horst Rittel.Rith, C. and Dubberly, H. (2007) "Why Horst W J Rittel Matters", Design Issues, 23, 72–91 In 1963 Rittel moved to the School of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, where he helped found the Design Methods Group, a society focused on developing and promoting new methods especially in architecture and planning.
At the end of the 1960s two influential, but quite different works were published: Herbert A. Simon's The Sciences of the Artificial and J. Christopher Jones's Design Methods.Simon, H. A. (1969) The Sciences of the Artificial, MIT Press, USA.Jones, J. C. (1970) Design Methods: Seeds of Human Futures, Wiley, UK Simon proposed the "science of design" as "a body of intellectually tough, analytic, partly formalizable, partly empirical, teachable doctrine about the design process", whereas Jones catalogued a variety of approaches to design, both rational and creative, within a context of a broad, futures creating, systems view of design.
The 1970s saw some reaction against the rationality of design methods, notably from two of its pioneers, Christopher Alexander and J. Christopher Jones.Cross, N. (1984) Developments in Design Methodology, Wiley, UK. Fundamental issues were also raised by Rittel, who characterised design and planning problems as wicked problems, un-amenable to the techniques of science and engineering, which deal with "tame" problems.Rittel, H. and M. Webber (1973) "Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning", Policy Sciences 4, 155–169 The criticisms turned some in the movement away from rationalised approaches to design problem solving and towards "argumentative", participatory processes in which designers worked in partnership with the problem stakeholders (clients, customers, users, the community). This led to participatory design, user centered design and the role of design thinking as a creative process in problem solving and innovation.
However, interest in systematic and rational design methods continued to develop strongly in engineering design during the 1980s; for example, through the Conference on Engineering Design series of The Design Society and the work of the Verein Deutscher Ingenieure association in Germany, and also in Japan, where the Japanese Society for the Science of Design had been established as early as 1954. Books on systematic engineering design methods were published in Germany and the UK.Hubka, V. (1982) Principles of Engineering Design, Butterworth Scientific Press, UK.Pahl, G. and W. Beitz (1984) Engineering Design: a systematic approach, Springer/Design Council, UK.Hubka, V., Andreasen, M. M. and Eder, W. E. (1988) Practical Studies in Systematic Design, Butterworth, UKCross, N. (1989) Engineering Design Methods, Wiley, UK. In the USA the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Design Engineering Division began a stream on design theory and methodology within its annual conferences. The interest in systematic, rational approaches to design has led to design science and design science (methodology) in engineering and computer science.
In the engineering design process systematic models tend to be linear, in sequential steps, but acknowledging the necessity of iteration. In architectural design, process models tend to be cyclical and spiral, with iteration as essential to progression towards a final design. In industrial and product design, process models tend to comprise a sequence of stages of divergent and convergent thinking. The Dubberly Design Office has compiled examples of more than 80 design process models,Dubberly, H. (2004) How do you design: a compendium of models. Dubberly Design Office, San Francisco, USA. http://www.dubberly.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/ddo_designprocess.pdf but it is not an exhaustive list.
Within these process models, numerous design methods can be applied. In his book of 'Design Methods' J. C. Jones grouped 26 methods according to their purposes within a design process: Methods of exploring design situations (e.g. Stating Objectives, Investigating User Behaviour, Interviewing Users), Methods of searching for ideas (e.g. Brainstorming, Synectics, Morphological Charts), Methods of exploring problem structure (e.g. Interaction Matrix, Functional Innovation, Information Sorting), Methods of evaluation (e.g. Checklists, Ranking and Weighting).Jones, J. C. (1970) Design Methods: seeds of human futures. Wiley, UK.
Nigel Cross outlined eight stages in a process of engineering product design, each with an associated method: Identifying Opportunities - User Scenarios; Clarifying Objectives - Objectives Tree; Establishing Functions - Function Analysis; Setting Requirements - Performance Specification; Determining Characteristics - Quality Function Deployment; Generating Alternatives - Morphological Chart; Evaluating Alternatives - Weighted Objectives; Improving Details - Value Engineering.Cross, N. (2008) Engineering Design Methods: Strategies for Product Design. Wiley, UK.
Many design methods still currently in use originated in the design methods movement of the 1960s and 70s, adapted to modern design practices. Recent developments have seen the introduction of more qualitative techniques, including ethnographic methods such as and situated methods.Simonsen, J. et al. (2014) Situated Design Methods. MIT Press, USA.
In the USA, a similar Design Methods Group (DMG) was also established in 1966 by Horst Rittel and others at the University of California, Berkeley. The DMG held a conference at MIT in 1968Moore, G. T. (ed.) (1970) Emerging Methods in Environmental Design and Planning. MIT Press, USA. with a focus on environmental design and planning, and that led to the foundation of the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA), which held its first conference in 1969. A group interested in design methods and theory in architecture and engineering formed at MIT in the early 1980s, including Donald Schön, who was studying the working practices of architects, engineers and other professionals and developing his theory of reflective practice.Schön, D. A. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. New York: Basic Books. . In 1984 the National Science Foundation created a Design Theory and Methodology Program to promote methods and process research in engineering design.
Meanwhile in Europe, Vladimir Hubka established the Workshop Design-Konstruction (WDK),which led to a series of International Conferences on Engineering Design (ICED) beginning in 1981 and later became the Design Society.
Academic research journals in design also began publication. DRS initiated Design Studies in 1979, Design Issues appeared in 1984, and Research in Engineering Design in 1989.
In the USA, designer Henry Dreyfuss had a profound impact on the practice of industrial design by developing systematic processes and promoting the use of anthropometrics, ergonomics and human factors in design, including through his 1955 book 'Designing for People'.Dreyfuss, Henry. Designing for People. Allworth Press; 2003. Another successful designer,
Much of current design practice has been influenced and guided by design methods. For example, the influential IDEO consultancy uses design methods extensively in its 'Design Kit' and 'Method Cards'. Increasingly, the intersections of design methods with business and government through the application of design thinking have been championed by numerous consultancies within the design profession. Wide influence has also come through Christopher Alexander's pattern language method, originally developed for architectural and urban design, which has been adopted in software design, interaction design, pedagogical design and other domains.
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