Wicked Problems in Design Thinking

Author(s): Richard Buchanan

Source: Design Issues , Spring, 1992, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Spring, 1992), pp. 5-21
Published by: The MIT Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1511637

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 Richard Buchanan

Wicked Problems in Design Thinking

Introduction
This essay is based on a paper presented at Despite efforts to discover the foundations of design thinking in
'Colloque Recherches sur le Design:
Incitations, Implications, Interactions,"
the fine arts, the natural sciences, or most recently, the social sci-
the
first French university symposium on ences, design eludes reduction and remains a surprisingly flexible
design research held October 1990 at
activity. No single definition of design, or branches of profes-
l'Universit6 de Technologie de Compiegne,
Compiegne, France. 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 in 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 an 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

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

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1) From Richard McKeon, "The result, the circle of learning was further divided and subdivided,
Transformation of the Liberal Arts in
until
the Renaissance," Developments in all that remained was a patchwork quilt of specializations.
Today,
the Early Renaissance, ed. Bernard S. these subject matters retain an echo of their old status
Levy (Albany: State University of
as liberal arts, but they flourish as specialized studies, leading to the
New York Press, 1972), 168-69.
perception of an ever more rich and detailed array of facts and val-
2) Neo-positivism, pragmatism, and var-
ues. Although these subjects contribute to the advance of knowledge,
ious forms of phenomenology have
they
strongly influenced design education also contribute to its fragmentation, as they have become pro-
and practice in the twentieth century.
gressively narrow in scope, more numerous, and have lost
If design theory has often tended
"connection
toward neo-positivism, design prac- with each other and with the common problems and
matters
tice has tended toward pragmatism of daily life from which they select aspects for precise
and pluralism, with phenomenologists
in both areas. Such
methodological analysis." The search for new integrative disci-
philosophical dif-
ferences are illustrated in the splitplines
that to complement the arts and sciences has become one of the
developed between the theoretical and
central themes of intellectual and practical life in the twentieth cen-
studio courses at the Hochschule fur
Gestaltung (HfG) Ulm before its tury.
clos- Without integrative disciplines of understanding,
ing. The split between theory and
communication, and action, there is little hope of sensibly extend-
practice in design is an echo of the dif-
ing
ference between the predominantly knowledge beyond the library or laboratory in order to serve
neo-positivist philosophy of science
the purpose of enriching human life.
and the exceptionally diverse philoso-
phies of practicing scientists. The emergence of design thinking in the twentieth century is
Design
important
history, theory, and criticism could in this context. The significance of seeking a scientific
benefit from closer attention to the
pluralism of views that guide
basis for design does not lie in the likelihood of reducing design to
actual
design practice. one or another of the sciences-an extension of the neo-positivist
project and still presented in these terms by some design theorists 2
3) Walter Groupius was one of the first to
recognize the beginnings of a newRather,
lib- it lies in a concern to connect and integrate useful knowl-
eral art in design. In an essay written
edge from the arts and sciences alike, but in ways that are suited
in 1937, he reflected on the founding
of the Bauhaus as an institution to the problems and purposes of the present. Designers, are explor-
grounded on the idea of an architec- ing concrete integrations of knowledge that will combine theory
tonic art: "Thus the Bauhaus was
inaugurated in 1919 with the specific with practice for new productive purposes, and this is the reason
object of realizing a modern architec- why we turn to design thinking for insight into the new liberal arts
tonic art, which like human nature was
meant to be all-embracing in its scope.
of technological culture3
. . . Our guiding principle was that
design is neither an intellectual nor a Design and Intentional Operations
material affair, but simply an integral The beginning of the study of design as a liberal art can be traced
part of the stuff of life, necessary for
everyone in a civilized society." Scope
to the cultural upheaval that occurred in the early part of the twen-
of Total Architecture (New York: tieth century. The key feature of this upheaval was described by
Collier Books, 1970), 19-20. The term
John Dewey in The Questfor Certainty as the perception of a new
"architectonic," in this case, transcends
the derivative term "architecture" as center of the universe.
it is commonly used in the modern
The old center of the universe was the mind knowing by.
world. Throughout Western culture,
the liberal arts have similarly been means of an equipment of powers complete within itself,
described as "architectonic" because and merely exercised upon an antecedent external mate-
of their integrative capacity. Groupius
appeared to understand that architec-
rial equally complete within itself. The new center is
ture, regarded as a liberal art in its own indefinite interactions taking place within a course of
right in the ancient world, was only
one manifestation of the architecton-
nature which is not fixed and complete, but which is capa-
ic art of design in the twentieth ble of direction to new and different results through the
century.
mediation of intentional operations.'
4) John Dewey, The Quest for Certainty:
A Study of the Relation of Knowledge
What Dewey describes here is the root of the difference between
and Action (1929; rpt. New York:
Capricorn Books, 1960), 290-91. the old and new liberal arts, between specialization in the facts of a
subject matter and the use of new disciplines of integrative thinking.

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 Dewey observes, however, that the meaning and implications
of the new direction are still not fully understood.
Nowadays we have a 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 a lower rank is equally esteemed
5) John Dewey, Experience and Nature and honored.
(1929; rpt. New York: Dover
Carrying these observations further, Dewey explores the new rela-
Publications, Inc., 1958), 357.
tionship between science, art, and practice. He suggests in Experience
and Nature that knowledge is no longer achieved by direct con-
formity of ideas with the fixed orders of nature; knowledge is
achieved by a new kind of art directed toward orders of change.
But if modern tendencies are justified in 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
6) Dewey, Experience and Nature, 357- enjoyed meanings.
58.
Although the neo-positivists courted Dewey for a time, it was
apparent that his understanding of the development of science in
the twentieth century was quite different from their understand-
ing7. Instead of treating science as primary and art as secondary,
7) The neo-positivist International
Dewey pointed toward science as art.
Encyclopedia of Unified Science,
which included Charles Morris's The consideration that completes the ground for assim-
Foundations of the Theory of Signs,
ilating science to art is the fact that assignment of
also included Dewey's Theory of
Valuation. However, Dewey's Logic scientific status in any given case rests upon facts which
was ignored or ridiculed by neo-pos- are experimentally produced. Science is now the prod-
itivist logicians and grammarians.
uct of operations deliberately undertaken in conformity
with a plan or project that has the properties of a work-
ing hypothesis.
8) John Dewey, "By Nature and By Art,"
What Dewey means by "art" in this context is crucial to understand-
Philosophy of Education (Problems
of Men) (1946; rpt. Totowa, New ing the new role of design and technology in contemporary culture.
Jersey: Littlefield, Adams, 1958), 288. After a period in which natural knowledge progressed by
borrowing from the industrial crafts, science entered upon
a period of steady and ever-accelerated growth by means
of deliberate invention of such appliances on its own
account. In order to mark this differential feature of the art
which is science, I shall now use the word "technology."
... Because of technologies, a circular relationship between
9) Dewey, "By Nature and By Art," 291- the arts of production and science has been established.
92.

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

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 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
10) For Dewey, the arts of production, the sciences, the arts of production," or social and political action.
include the fine arts. He makes no sharp
distinction between fine and useful arts.
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, or 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 so
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. In 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-

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 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
11) Herbert A. Simon, The Sciences of the liberally educated man."" One may reasonably disagree with aspects
Artificial (Cambridge: M.I.T. Press,
of Simon's positivist and empiricist view of design as a science
1968), 83
(as one may disagree with the pragmatic principles that stand behind
12) Although Simon's The Sciences of the
Dewey's observation of the importance of intentional operations
Artificial is cited repeatedly in design
literature because of its definition of in modern culture),"3 but there is little reason to disagree with the
design, it is often read with little atten- idea that all men and women may benefit from an early under-
tion given to the full argument. A
careful analysis from the standpoint standing of the disciplines of design in the contemporary world.
of industrial design would be a use- The beginning of such an understanding has already turned the
ful contribution to the literature. Such
a reading would reveal the positivist
study of the traditional arts and sciences toward a new engage-
features of Simon's approach and help ment with the problems of everyday experience, evident in the
to explain why many designers are
development of diverse new products which incorporate knowl-
somewhat disenchanted with the
book. Nonetheless, it remains an edge from many fields of specialized inquiry.
exceptionally useful work.
To gain some idea of how extensively design affects contem-
13) See Richard Buchanan, "Design and porary life, consider the four broad areas in which design is explored
Technology in the Second Copernican throughout the world by professional designers and by many oth-
Revolution," Revue des sciences et
techniques de la conception (The ers who may not regard themselves as designers. The first of these
Journal of Design Sciences and areas is the design of symbolic and visual communications. This
Technology, January, 1992), 1:1.
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
14) The phrase "bookish culture" is used the "bookish culture" of the past.'4
by literary critic George Steiner and
The second area is the design of material objects. This includes
is a theme in a forthcoming book by
traditional
Ivan Illich, In the Vineyard of the Text. 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
15) The design of material objects includes, natural science, and the human sciences. 5
of course, new work in materials sci-
The third area is the design of activities and organized services,
ence, where a highly focused form of
design thinking is evident. 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

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

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 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
16) Some of the psychological and social structure of action.'6
dimensions of this area are illustrated in
works as diverse as George A. Miller,
The fourth area is the design of complex systems or environ-
Eugene Galanter, and Karl H. Pribram, ments for living, working, playing, and learning. This includes the
Plans and the Structure of Behavior (New
traditional concerns of systems engineering, architecture, and urban
York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston,
1960); Lucy Suchman, Plans and Situated planning or the functional analysis of the parts of complex wholes
Actions: The Problem of Human-
and their subsequent integration in hierarchies. But this area has
Machine Communication (Cambridge:
also
Cambridge University Press, 1987); and expanded and reflects more consciousness of the central idea,
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The thought, or value that expresses the unity of any balanced and func-
Psychology of Optimal Experience
(New York: Harper & Row, 1990).
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
17) One of the early works of systems engi- them when necessary.
neering that influenced design thinking
Reflecting on this list of the areas of design thinking, it is tempt-
is Arthur D. Hall, A Methodology for
Systems Engineering (Princeton, New ing to identify and limit specific design professions within each
Jersey: D. Van Nostrand Company,
area-graphic designers with communication, industrial designers
1962). For more recent developments
in systems thinking, see Ron Levy, and engineers with material objects, designers-cum-managers with
"Critical Systems Thinking: Edgar activities and services, and architects and urban planners with systems
Morin and the French School of
Thought," Systems Practice, vol. 4 and environments. But this would not be adequate, because these
(1990). Regarding the new "systemics," areas are not simply categories of objects that reflect the results of
see Robert L. Flood and Werner Ulrich,
design. Properly understood and used, they are also places of inven-
"Testament to Conversations on Critical
Systems Thinking Between Two tion shared by all designers, places where one discovers the dimensions
Systems Practitioners," Systems
of design thinking by a reconsideration of problems and solutions.
Practice, vol. 3 (1990), and M. C.
Jackson, "The Critical Kernel in True, these four areas point toward certain kinds of objectivi-
Modern Systems Thinking," Systems
ty in human experience, and the work of designers in each of these
Practice, vol. 3 (1990). For an anthro-
pological approach to systems, seeJames areas has created a framework for human experience in contem-
Holston, The Modernist City: An porary culture. But these areas are also interconnected, with no
Anthropological Critique of Brasilia
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
priority given to any single one. For example, the sequence of signs,
1989). 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
18) Compare the Platonic, Aristotelian, and and whole are of many types and may be defined in many ways. 8
classic materialist treatments of parts
Depending on how a designer wishes to explore and organize expe-
and wholes. These three approaches to
the organization of experience are well rience, the sequence could just as reasonably be regarded as a descent
represented in twentieth century design from chaotic environments to the unity provided by symbols and
thinking. For example, see Christopher
Alexander, Notes on the Synthesis of images. In fact, signs, things, actions, and thoughts are not only
Form (Cambridge: Harvard University interconnected, they also interpenetrate and merge in contempo-
Press, 1973).
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.

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 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 of
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 as
part of larger systems, cycles, and environments, opening up a 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 in
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, a group of architects have aggres-
19) Such judgments are the measure of objec- sively sought to reposition architecture in the context of signs,
tivity in contemporary design thinking.
Without objectivity to ground the possi-
symbols, and visual communication, yielding the postmodern
bilities discoveredin design, design thinking experiment and trends such as deconstructionist architecture.
becomes design sophistry.
Oxymorons such as "deconstructionist architecture" are often the
20) Architect Richard Rogers seeks to repo- result of attempts at innovative repositioning. They indicate a desire
sition the problems of architecture in a
to break old categories, as in the now familiar and accepted "con-
new perception of multiple overlapping
systems, rejecting the notion of a sys- structivist art" and "action painting." The test, of course, is whether
tem as "linear, static, hierarchical and
experiments in innovation yield productive results, judged by indi-
mechanical order." According to
Rogers: "Today we know that design viduals and by society as a whole.'9 Some experiments have fallen
based on linear reasoning must be like dead leaves at the first frost, swept away to merciful oblivion.
superseded by an open-ended archi-
tecture of overlapping systems. This At present, the results of deconstructionist architecture are mixed,
'systems' approach allows us to appre- but the experiment will continue until individuals or groups repo-
ciate the world as an indivisible whole;
we are, in architecture, as in other fields,
sition the problems of architecture and shift general attention
20

approaching a holistic ecological view toward new questions.

of the globe and the way we live on it."
A strikingly different repositioning is now beginning in the pro-
Architecture: A Modern View (New
York: Thames and Hudson Inc., 1991), fession of graphic design and visual communication. In the late
58. Rogers's notion of "indeterminate
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, graphic design was ori-
form" derives not from the ideas of lit-
erary deconstruction but from his ented toward personal expression through image making. It was an
innovative view of multiple systems. extension of the expressiveness of the fine arts, pressed into com-
For more on Rogers's pointed criticism
of postmodern architecture from the mercial or scientific service. This was modified under the influence
perspective of multiple systems, see of "communication theory" and semiotics when the role of the
Architecture: A Modern View, 26.
graphic designer was shifted toward that of an interpreter of mes-

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

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 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-
21) Although stil a common and usefuil way ties" (material texts) to be "decoded" by spectators. Recently,
of studying visual communication, this
however, a new approach in graphic design thinking has begun to
approach has lost some of its initial force
in actual design practice because it has question the essentially linguistic or grammatical approach of com-
moved into personal idiosyncracy and a
munications theory and semiotics by regarding visual
search for novelty, which often distracts
one from the central tasks of effective communication as persuasive argumentation. As this work unf
communication. This is evident, for it will likely seek to reposition graphic design within the dyn
example, among those graphic designers
who have made pedestrian readings of
ic flow of experience and communication, emphasizing rhetori
deconstructionist literary theory the relationships among graphic designers, audiences, and the conten
rationale for their work. Visual experi-
mentation is an important part of graphic
of communication. In this situation, designers would no longer
design thinking, but experimentation viewed as individuals who decorate messages, but as communica-
must finally be judged by relevance and
tors who seek to discover convincing arguments by means of a
effectiveness of communication. For a
discussion of the limits of semiotics and new synthesis of images and words. In turn, this will shift atten-
design, see Seppo Vakeva, "What Do tion toward audiences as active participants in reaching conclusions
We Need Semiotics For?," Semantic
Visions in Design, ed. Susann Vihma rather than passive recipients of preformed messages.
(Helsinki: University of Industrial Arts What works for movements within a design profession also
UIAH, 1990), g-2.
works for individual designers and their clients in addressing spe-
22) Swiss graphic designer Ruedi Ruegg has cific problems. Managers of a large retail chain were puzzled that
recently spoken of the need for more
fantasy and freedom in graphic design
customers had difficulty navigating through their stores to find
thinking. Based on his approach, one merchandise. Traditional graphic design yielded larger signs but no
might argue that efforts to introduce
apparent improvement in navigation-the larger the sign, the more
deconstructionist literary theory into
graphic design have often led to a loss of likely people were to ignore it. Finally, a design consultant suggested
freedom and imagination in effective
that the problem should be studied from the perspective of the
communication, contrary to the claims
of its proponents. 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

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 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 in
23) The concept of placements will remain concrete circumstances
difficult to grasp as long as individuals
As an ordered or systematic approach to the invention of possi-
are trained to believe that the only path
of reasoning begins with categories and bilities, the doctrine of placements provides a useful means of
proceeds in deductive chains of propo-
understanding what many designers describe as the intuitive or
sitions. Designers are concerned with
invention as well as judgment, and their serendipitous quality of their work. Individual designers often pos-
reasoning is practical because it takes sess a personal set of placements, developed and tested by experience.
place in situations where the results are
influenced by diverse opinions. 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
24) Some placements have become so com-
mon in twentieth-century design that
situation, discovering aspects of the situation that affect the final
they hardly attract attention. design. What is regarded as the designer's style, then, is sometimes
Nonetheless, such placements are clas-
more than just a personal preference for certain types of visual forms,
sic features of design thinking, and in
materials,
the hands of a skilled designer retain or techniques; it is a characteristic way of seeing possibil-
their inventive potential. Designer Jay
ities through conceptual placements. However, when a designer's
Doblin sometimes employed a cascade
conceptual
of placements stemming from the basic placements become categories of thinking, the result can
be
placement "intrinsic/extrinsic." Doblin's mannered imitations of an earlier invention that are no longer
placements serve as a heuristic device
relevant
to reveal the factors in design thinking to the discovery of specific possibilities in a new situation.
Ideas
and product development. Other place- are then forced onto a situation rather than discovered in the
ments are described by Doblin in
"Innovation, A Cook Book Approach,"
particularities and novel possibilities of that situation..2
n.d. (Typewritten.) With different intent, For the practicing designer, placements are primary and cate-
Ezio Manzini recently argued that the
gories are secondary. The reverse holds true for design history,
designer needs two mental instruments
with opposite qualities to examine a theory, and criticism, except at those moments when a new direc-
design situation: a microscope and a
tion for inquiry is opened. At such times, a repositioning of the
macroscope. The mental microscope is
for examining "how things work, down problems of design, such as a change in the subject matter to be
to the smallest details," particularly in addressed, the methods to be employed, or the principles to be
regard to advances in materials science.
A further series of placements fill out explored, occurs by means of placements. Then, history, theory,
the microscope to give it efficacy. See or criticism are "redesigned" for the individual investigator and
Ezio Manzini, The Materials of
Invention: Materials and Design
sometimes for groups of investigators. As the discipline of design
(Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1989), 58. studies adds a reflective and philosophic dimension to design his-
tory, theory, and criticism, positive consequences are possible.
25) The ease with which placements are
Historians,
converted into categories should make for example, may reconsider the placement of design
any designer or design educator cau-
history as it has been practiced throughout most of the twentieth
tious in how they share the conceptual
century
tools of their work. The placements and work to discover other innovative possibilities.
that might shape an innovative approachDiscontent with the results of current design history suggests that
for the founder of a school of design
thinking often become categories new repositionings are called for if the discipline is to retain vital-
of
27
ity
truth in the hands of disciples or descen- and relevance to contemporary problems.
dants.
The doctrine of placements will require further development if
26) Thomas Kuhn was interested in the it is to be recognized as a tool in design studies and design think-
repositionings that mark revolutions in
ing, but it can also be a surprisingly precise way of addressing
scientific theory. His study of this phe-
nomenon, perhaps contrary to his conceptual space and the non-dimensional images from which con-
28
initial expectations, has helped to alter
crete possibilities emerge for testing in objective circumstances.
the neo-positivist interpretation of the
history of science. But Kuhn's The natural and spontaneous use of placements by designers is

Design Issues: Vol. VIII, Number 2 Spring 1992 13

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 "paradigm shifts" were never devel- already evident; an explicit understanding of the doctrine of place-
oped to their fullest intellectual roots
in rhetorical and dialectical invention, ments will make it an important element of design as a liberal art.
which are based on the theory of top- All men and women require a liberal art of design to live well
ics. Chaim Perelman has developed an
important contemporary approach to
in the complexity of the framework based in signs, things, actions,
what is called here the doctrine of and thoughts. On one hand, such an art will enable individuals to
placements. See Chaim Perelman and
participate more directly in this framework and contribute to its
L. Olbrechts-Tyteca, The New
development.
Rhetoric: A Treatise on Argumentation On the other, professional designers could be regard-
(Notre Dame: University of Notre
ed as masters in its exploration. The ability of designers to discover
Dame Press, 1969). See also, Stephen E.
Toulmin, The Uses of Argument new relationships among signs, things, actions, and thoughts is one
(Cambridge: Cambridge University indication that design is not merely a technical specialization but
Press, 1958) for a modern discovery of
dialectical topics. Although remote a new liberal art.
from the immediate interests of design-
ers, these works are cited because they The Wicked Problems Theory of Design
deal with practical reasoning and have Recent conferences on design are evidence of a coherent, if not
important bearing on aspects of design
theory, including the logic of decision
always systematic, effort to reach a clearer understanding of design
making discussed in Simon's The as an integrative discipline. However, the participants, who increas-
Sciences of the Artificial.
ingly come from diverse professions and academic disciplines, are
27) In order to solve such problems, morenot drawn together because they share a common definition of
attention should be given to the vari-
design; a common methodology, a common philosophy, or even a
ous conceptions of design held by
designers in the past. This would repo- common set of objects to which everyone agrees that the term
sition design history from material
"design" should be applied. They are drawn together because they
objects or "things" to thought and
action. In other words, what design- share a mutual interest in a common theme: the conception and
ers say and do, the history of their art planning of the artificial. Different definitions of design and differ-
as philosophy and practice. For a dis-
cussion of the subject matter of design ent specifications of the methodology of design are variations of
history, see Victor Margolin's forth- this broad theme, each a concrete exploration of what is possible in
coming "Design History or Design
Studies: Subject Matter and Methods,"
the development of its meanings and implications. Communication
Design Studies. is possible at such meetings because the results of research and dis-
cussion, despite wide differences in intellectual and practical
28) The phrase "non-dimensional images"
refers to all images created in the mindperspectives, are always connected by this theme and, therefore,
as part of design thinking and, in par-
supplemental. This is only possible, of course, if individuals have
ticular, to the various schematizations
of conceptual placements (e.g. hierar-the wit to discover what is useful in each other's work and can cast
chical, horizontal, or in matrix and the material in terms of their own vision of design thinking.
table form) that may aid invention.
Members of the scientific community, however, must be puz-
29) This list could also include the human-zled by the types of problems addressed by professional designers
istic disciplines and the fine arts, because
there is as much difficulty in commu-
and by the patterns of reasoning they employ. While scientists
nicating between some traditional share in the new liberal art of design thinking, they are also mas-
humanists and designers as between
ters of specialized subject matters and their related methods, as
designers and scientists. This is evident
in the persistent view that design is sim- found in physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, the social sci-
ply a decorative art, adapting the
ences, or one of the many subfields into which these sciences have
principles of the fine arts to utilitarian
ends, held by many humanists. been divided. This creates one of the central problems of com-
munication between scientists and designers, because the problems
30) William R. Spillers, ed., Basic Questions
of Design Theory (Amsterdam: North addressed by designers seldom fall solely within the boundaries of
Holland Publishing Company, 1974). any one of these subject matters.
The conference, funded by the National
Science Foundation, was held at
The problem of communication between scientists and design-
Columbia University. ers was evident in a special conference on design theory held in
New York in 1974.30 This conference was interesting for several
31) Vladimer Bazjanac, "Architectural
Design Theory: Models of the Design reasons, the most significant directly related to the content of the
Process," Basic Questions of Design
meeting itself. Reviewed in one of the initial papers," the "wicked
Theory, 3-20.

14

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 problems" approach to design proved to be one of the central themes
to which the participants often returned when seeking a connection
between their remarkably diverse and seemingly incommensurate
32) Graph theory, developed by the math- applications of design. Also significant was the difficulty that most
ematician Frank Harary, also served to
of the participants had in understanding each other. Although an
connect the work of researchers in
many areas. It was reported by the orga- observation of an outsider on the dynamics of the meeting, it is an
nizers that Harary, who attended this
excellent example of a "wicked problem" of design thinking.
conference and delivered the paper
"Graphs as Designs," suggested that The wicked problems approach was formulated by Horst Rittel
the basic structure of design theory in the 1960s, when design methodology was a subject of intense
could be found in his work on structural
models. Whether or not Harary made
interest.33 A mathematician, designer, and former teacher at the
such a suggestion, it is possible to see in Hochschule fur Gestaltung (HfG) Ulm, Rittel sought an alterna-
graph theory, and, notably, the theory
tive to the linear, step-by-step model of the design process being
of directed graphs, a mathematical
expression of the doctrine of place- explored by many designers and design theorists.34 Although there
ments. Comparison may establish a
are many variations of the linear model, its proponents hold that the
surprising connection between the arts
of words and the mathematical arts of design process is divided into two distinct phases: problem defini-
things, with further significance for the
tion and problem solution. Problem definition is an analytic sequence
view of design as a new liberal art.
"Schemata" are the connecting link, for in which the designer determines all of the elements of the problem
placements may be schematized as fig- and specifies all of the requirements that a successful design solu-
ures of thought, and schemata are forms
of graphs, directed or otherwise. For
tion must have. Problem solution is a synthetic sequence in which
more on graph theory see F. Harary, the various requirements are combined and balanced against each
R. Norman, and D. Cartwright,
other, yielding a final plan to be carried into production.
Structural Models: An Introduction to
the Theory of Directed Graphs (New In the abstract, such a model may appear attractive because it
York: Wiley, 1965).
suggests a methodological precision that is, in its key features, inde-
33) A series of conferences on Design pendent from the perspective of the individual designer. In fact,
Methods held in the United Kingdom
many scientists and business professionals, as well as some design-
in 1962, 1965, and 1967, led to the for-
mation of the Design Research Society ers, continue to find the idea of a linear model attractive, believing
in 1967, that today continues to publish that it represents the only hope for a "logical" understanding of the
the journal Design Studies. Parallel
interest in the United States led to the
design process. However, some critics were quick to point out two
establishment of the Design Methods obvious points of weakness: one, the actual sequence of design
Group in 1966, which published the
thinking and decision making is not a simple linear process; and two,
DMG Newsletter (1966-71), renamed
the DMG-DRS Journal: Design the problems addressed by designers do not, in actual practice,
Research and Methods, and then
yield to any linear analysis and synthesis yet proposed.
renamed in 1976 and published to the
present as Design Methods and Rittel argued that most of the problems addressed by designers
36
Theories. For one attempt to describe
are wicked problems. As described in the first published report of
and integrate a set of methods used in
Rittel's
design thinking, see J. Christopher idea, wicked problems are a "class of social system problems
Jones, Design Methods: Seeds of which are ill-formulated, where the information is confusing, where
Human Futures (1970; rpt New York:
John Wiley & Sons, 1981). Many of the
there are many clients and decision makers with conflicting values,
methodsJones presents are conscious- and where the ramifications in the whole system are thoroughly
ly transposed from other disciplines.
However, they all can be interpreted
confusing."37 This is an amusing description of what confronts
as techniques for repositioning designdesigners in every new situation. But most important, it points
problems, using placements to discov-
toward a fundamental issue that lies behind practice: the relation-
er new possibilities.
ship between determinacy and indeterminacy in design thinking.
34) Rittel, who died in 1990, completed his
The linear model of design thinking is based on determinate prob-
career by teaching at the University of
California at Berkeley and the lems which have definite conditions. The designer's task is to identify
those
University of Stuttgart. For a brief bio- conditions precisely and then calculate a solution. In con-
graphical sketch, see Herbert Lindinger,
trast,
Ulm Design: The Morality of Objects the wicked-problems approach suggests that there is a
fundamental
(Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1990), 274. indeterminacy in all but the most trivial design prob-

Design Issues: Vol. VIII, Number 2 Spring 1992 15

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35) Bazjanac presents an interesting com-
lems-problems where, as Rittel suggests, the "wickedness" has
parison of linear models and the wicked
problems approach. already been taken out to yield determinate or analytic problems.
To understand what this means, it is important to recognize that
36) The phrase wicked problems was bor-
rowed from philosopher Karl Popper. indeterminacy is quite different from undetermined. Indeterminacy
However, Rittel developed the idea in implies that there are no definitive conditions or limits to design
a different direction. Rittel is another
example of someone initially influenced
problems. This is evident, for example, in the ten properties of
wicked
by neo-positivist ideas who, when con- problems that Rittel initially identified in 1972.3
fronted with the actual processes of
(1) Wicked problems have no definitive formulation,
practical reasoning in concrete circum-
stances, sought to develop a new but every formulation of a wickedproblem corresponds
approach related to rhetoric.
to the formulation of a solution.
37) The first published report of Rittel's (2) Wicked problems have no stopping rules.
concept of wicked problems was pre- (3) Solutions to wicked problems cannot be true or false,
sented by C. West Churchman,
"Wicked Problems," Management
only good or bad.
Science, (December 1967), vol. 4, no. (4) In solving wicked problems there is no exhaustive list
14, B-141-42. His editorial is particu-
of admissible operations.
larly interesting for its discussion of the
moral problems of design and planning (5) For every wicked problem there is always more than
that can occur when individuals mis-
one possible explanation, with explanations depending
takenly believe that they have effectively
taken the "wickedness" out of design on the Weltanschauung of the designer.39
problems.
(6) Every wicked problem is a symptom of another,
38) See Horst W. J. Rittel and Melvin M. "higher level," problem."
Webber, "Dilemmas in a General (7) No formulation and solution of a wicked problem
Theory of Planning," working paper
presented at the Institute of Urban and
has a definitive test.
Regional Development, University of (8) Solving a wicked problem is a "one shot" operation,
California, Berkeley, November 1972.
with no room for trial and error. 1
See also an interview with Rittel, "Son
of Rittelthink," Design Methods Group (9) Every wicked problem is unique.
5th Anniversary Report January 1972),
(10) The wicked problem solver has no right to be
5-10; and Horst Rittel, "On the
Planning Crisis: Systems Analysis of wrong-they are fully responsible for their actions.
the First and Second Generations,"
This is a remarkable list, and it is tempting to go no further than
Bedriftsokonomen, no. 8: 390-96. Rittel
elaborate
gradually added more properties to his the meaning of each property, providing concrete exam-
initial list. ples drawn from every area of design thinking. But to do so would

39) Weltanschauung identifies the intellec-

leave a fundamental question unanswered. Why are design problems
tual perspective of the designer as an indeterminate and, therefore, wicked? Neither Rittel nor any of
integral part of the design process.
those studying wicked problems has attempted to answer this ques-
40) This property suggests the systems tion, so the wicked-problems approach has remained only a description
aspect of Rittel's approach.
of the social reality of designing rather than the beginnings of a well-
41) Rittel's example is drawn from archi- grounded theory of design.
tecture, where it is not feasible to rebuild
However, the answer to the question lies in something rarely
a flawed building. Perhaps the general
property should be described as considered: the peculiar nature of the subject matter of design. Design
.entrapment" in a line of design think- problems are "indeterminate" and "wicked" because design has no
ing. Designers as well as their clients or
managers are often "entrapped" dur-special subject matter of its own apart from what a designer conceives
ing the development phase of a new it to be. The subject matter of design is potentially universal in scope,
product and are unable, for good or
bad reasons, to terminate a weak design.
because design thinking may be applied to any area of human expe-
For a brief illustration of entrapment rience. But in the process of application, the designer must discover
in the product development process of
or invent a particular subject out of the problems and issues of spe-
a small midwestern company, see
Richard Buchanan, "Wicked Problems: cific circumstances. This sharply contrasts with the disciplines of
Managing the Entrapment Trap,"
science, which are concerned with understanding the principles,
Innovation (Summer, 1991), 10:3.
laws, rules, or structures that are necessarily embodied in existing sub-
ject matters. Such subject matters are undetermined or

16

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 under-determined, requiring further investigation to make them
more fully determinate. But they are not radically indeterminate in
42
42) There is one case in which even the sub- a way directly comparable to that of design.
ject matters of the sciences are
indeterminate. The working hypothe-
Designers conceive their subject matter in two ways on two lev-
ses of scientists invariably reflect els: general and particular. On a general level, a designer forms an
distinctive philosophic perspectives on
idea or a working hypothesis about the nature of products or the
and interpretations of what constitutes
nature and natural processes. This is a nature of the humanmade in the world. This is the designer's view
factor in accounting for the surprising
of what is meant, for example, by the "artificial" in relation to the
pluralism of philosophies among prac-
ticing scientists and suggests that even "natural." In this sense, the designer holds a broad view of the nature
science is shaped by an application of of design and the proper scope of its application. Indeed, most
design thinking, developed along the
lines of Dewey's notion of "intention- designers, to the degree that they have reflected on their discipline,
al operations." Even from this will gladly, if not insistently, explain on a general level what the
perspective, however, scientists are con-
cerned with understanding the universal
subject matter of design is. When developed and well presented,
properties of what is, while designers these
are explanations are philosophies or proto-philosophies of design
concerned with conceiving and plan-
that exist within a plurality of alternative views. 3 They provide an
ning a particular that does not yet exist.
Indeterminacy for the scientist is on essential
the framework for each designer to understand and explore the
level of second-intention, while the sub-
materials, methods, and principles of design thinking. But such
ject matter remains, at the level of
first-intention, determinate in the man- philosophies do not and cannot constitute sciences of design in the
ner described. For the designer, sense of any natural, social, or humanistic science. The reason for
indeterminacy belongs to both first-
and second-intention. this is simple: design is fundamentally concerned with the particu-
lar, and there is no science of the particular.
43) For a brief discussion of different con-
ceptions of subject matter on this level
In actual practice, the designer begins with what should be called
a
held by three contemporary designers, quasi-subject matter, tenuously existing within the problems and
Ezio Manzini, Gaetano Pesce, and
issues of specific circumstances. Out of the specific possibilities of
Emilio Ambaz, see Richard Buchanan,
a
"Metaphors, Narratives, and Fables in concrete situation, the designer must conceive a design that will
New Design Thinking," Design Issues
lead to this or that particular product. A quasi-subject matter is
VII-1 (Fall, 1990): 78-84. Without
not
understanding a designer's view of sub- an undetermined subject waiting to be made determinate. It is
ject matter on the general level, there isan indeterminate subject waiting to be made specific and concrete.
little intelligibility in the shifts that occur
when a designer moves, for example, For example, a client's brief does not present a definition of the sub-
from designing domestic products toject matter of a particular design application. It presents a problem
graphic design or architecture. Such
shifts are usually described in terms of
and a set of issues to be considered in resolving that problem. In
the designer's "personality" or "cir- situations where a brief specifies in great detail the particular fea-
cumstances," rather than the continued
tures of the product to be planned, it often does so because an
development of a coherent intellectual
perspective on the artificial. 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
44) Failure to include professional design- through discussion and argument.
ers as early as possible in the product
This is where placements take on special significance as tools of
development process is one of the
sources of entrapment in corporate design thinking. They allow the designer to position and reposi-
culture. Professional designers should
tion the problems and issues at hand. Placements are the tools by
be recognized for their ability to con-
ceive products as well as plan them. 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

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

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 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 as 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
45) The earliest example of this science is
of their generic kinds.45 But in all such studies, the activities of design
Aristotle's Poetics. Although this work
is directed toward the analysis of liter-
thinking are easily forgotten or are reduced to the kind of product
ary productions and tragedy in that is finally produced. The problem for designers is to conceive and
particular, Aristotle frequently discusses
plan what does not yet exist, and this occurs in the context of the inde-
useful objects in terms of the princi-
terminacy
ples of poetic analysis. "Poetics," from of wicked problems, before the final result is known.
the Greek word for "making," is used
This is the creative or inventive activity that Herbert Simon has
by Aristotle to refer to productive sci-
ence or the science of the artificial,in mind when he speaks of design as a science of the artificial. What
which he distinguishes both from the-
he means is "devising artifacts to attain goals" or, more broadly,
oretic and practical sciences. Few
investigators have recognized that poet-"doctrine about the design process."46 In this sense, Simon's sci-
ic analysis can be extended to the study ence of the artificial is perhaps closer to what Dewey means by
of making "useful" objects. When
designer and architect Emilio Ambaz
technology as a systematic discipline of experimental thinking.
refers to the "poetics of the pragmatic," However, Simon has little to say about the difference between
he means not only esthetic or elegant
features of everyday objects, but also
designing a product and making it. Consequently, the "search" pro-
a method or discipline of analysis that cedures and decision-making protocols that he proposes for design
may contribute to design thinking.
are largely analytic, shaped by his philosophic view of the deter-
46) Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial, minacies that follow from the natural laws that surround artifacts.
52-53.
For all of the insight Simon has in distinguishing the artificial as
47) For Simon, the "artificial" is an "inter- a domain of humanmade products different from objects created by
face" created within a materialist natural processes, he does not capture the radical sense in which
reality: "I have shown that a science of
artificial phenomena is always in designers explore the essence of what the artificial may be in human
48
imminent danger of dissolving and experience. This is a synthetic activity related to indeterminacy, not
vanishing. The peculiar properties of
the artifact lie on the thin interface
an activity of making what is undetermined in natural laws more
between the natural laws within it anddeterminate in artifacts. In short, Simon appears to have conflated
the natural laws without." Simon, The
two sciences of the artificial: an inventive science of design think-
Sciences of the Artificial, 57. This is
ing which has no subject matter aside from what the designer

18

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 one expression of the positivist or conceives it to be, and a science of existing humanmade products
empiricist philosophy that guides
Simon's theory of design.
whose nature Simon happens to believe is a manipulation of mate-
49

rial and behavioral laws of nature.

48) For Simon, the equivalent of a wicked
Design is a remarkably supple discipline, amenable to radical-
problem is an "ill-structured prob-
lem." For Simon's views on how ly different interpretations in philosophy as well as in practice. But
ill-structured problems may be
the flexibility of design often leads to popular misunderstanding
addressed, see "The Structure of Ill-
Structured Problems," Models of and clouds efforts to understand its nature. The history of design
Discovery (Boston: D. Reidel, 1977),
is not merely a history of objects. It is a history of the changing views
305-25. This paper has interesting con-
nections with the doctrine of of subject matter held by designers and the concrete objects con-
ceived,
placements because placements may planned, and produced as expressions of those views. One
be used to organize and store memo-
ries, and Simon is particularly
could go further and say that the history of design history is a record
of the
concerned with the role of long-term design historians' views regarding what they conceive to be
memory in solving ill-structured prob-
lems. But Simon's methods are still
the subject matter of design.
analytic, directed toward the discov- We have been slow to recognize the peculiar indeterminacy of
ery of solutions in some sense already
subject matter in design and its impact on the nature of design think-
known rather than the invention of
solutions yet unknown. ing. As a consequence, each of the sciences that have come into
contact with design has tended to regard design as an "applied" ver-
49) Although Simon's title, The Sciences
of the Artificial, is a perfectly adequate sion of its own knowledge, methods, and principles. They see in
translation of what we have come to design an instance of their own subject matter and treat design as a
know in Western culture as Aristotle's
Poetics, Simon seems unaware of the practical demonstration of the scientific principles of that subject mat-
humanistic tradition of poetic and ter. Thus, we have the odd, recurring situation in which design is
rhetorical analysis of the artificial that
followed from Aristotle. This is not
alternately regarded as "applied" natural science, "applied" social
an antiquarian issue, because the study science, or "applied" fine art. No wonder designers and members
of literary production-the artificial
of the scientific community often have difficulty communicating.
formed in words-prefigures the issues
that surround the study of the artifi-
cial in all other types of useful objects.
Design and Technology
Aristotle carefully distinguished the Many problems remain to be explored in establishing design as a lib-
science of the artificial from the art of
eral art of technological culture. But as it continues to unfold in the
rhetoric. When Aristotle comes to dis-
cuss the thought that is presented in work of individual designers and in reflection on the nature of their
an artificial object such as a tragedy,
work,50 design is slowly restoring the richer meaning of the term
he pointedly refers the reader to his
treatise on the inventive art of rhetoric "technology" that was all but lost with the rise of the Industrial
for the fullest elaboration of the issue. Revolution. Most people continue to think of technology in terms
However, Simon deserves less criti-
cism for overlooking this connection of its product rather than its form as a discipline of systematic think-
than humanists who have been amaz- ing. They regard technology as things and machines, observing with
ingly neglectful, if not scornful, of the
rise of design and technology in the
concern that the machines of our culture often appear out of human
twentieth century. control, threatening to trap and enslave rather than liberate. But there
was a time in an earlier period of Western culture when technology
50) One example of such reflection is the
interdisciplinary conference "Discovering was a human activity operating throughout the liberal arts. Every
Design," organized by R. Buchanan and
liberal art had its own technologia or systematic discipline. To pos-
V. Margolin and held at the University
of Illinois at Chicago in 1990. The col- sess that technology or discipline of thinking was to possess the liberal
lected papers from this conference will be art, to be human, and to be free in seeking one's place in the world.
published as Discovering Design:
Explorations in Design Studies.
Design also has a technologia, and it is manifested in the plan
for every new product. The plan is an argument, reflecting the
51) Richard McKeon, "Logos: Technology,
Philology, and History," in Proceedings
deliberations of designers and their efforts to integrate knowledge
of the XVth World Congress of in new ways, suited to specific circumstances and needs. In this
Philosophy: Varna, Bulgaria, September
sense, design is emerging as a new discipline of practical reason-
17-22, 1973 (Sofia: Sofia Press
Production Center, 1974), 3:481-84. ing and argumentation, directed by individual designers toward one
or another of its major thematic variations in the twentieth cen-

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

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 tury: design as communication, construction, strategic planning,
52) For Rittel's view of argumentation in or systemic integration.52 The power of design as deliberation and
design, see Rittel and Webber,
argument lies in overcoming the limitations of mere verbal or
Dilemmas, 19. Also discussed in
symbolic
Bazjanac, "Architectural Design Theory: argument-the separation of words and things, or the-
Models of the Design Process," Basic
ory and practice that remains a source of disruption and confusion
Questions of Design Theory. Students
in
report that late in his career Rittel came contemporary culture. Argument in design thinking moves
to recognize the affinity between his
toward the concrete interplay and interconnection of signs, things,
approach and rhetoric.
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 is persistent confusion about the different modes
of 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
53) The necessary is sometimes referred materials, mechanisms, structures, and systems; while
to as "capacity" or "capability" in engi-
marketing tends to stress what is contingent in the changing atti-
neering. For a useful introduction to
tudes
engineering design, see M. J. French, and preferences of potential users. Because of these modal
Invention and Evolution: Design in
differences in approaching design problems, three of the most
Nature and Engineering (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1988). important professions of design thinking are often regarded as bit-
ter opponents in the design enterprise, irreconcilably distant from
54) Philip Kotler, the internationally rec-
ognized expert on marketing, has
each other.54
suggested that what many industrial What design as a liberal art contributes to this situation is a new
designers object to in marketing should
not be regarded as marketing itself, but
awareness of how argument is the central theme that cuts across
as bad marketing. For new develop- the many technical methodologies employed in each design pro-
ments in marketing, see Philip Kotler,
fession. Differences of modality may be complementary ways of
"Humanistic Marketing: Beyond the
Marketing Concept," Philosophical arguing-reciprocal expressions of what conditions and shapes the
and Radical Thought in Marketing, "useful" in human experience. As a liberal art of technological cul-
eds. A. Fuat Firat, N. Dholakia, and R.
P. Bagozzi (Lexington, Massachusetts: ture, design points toward a new attitude about the appearance of
Lexington Books, 1987). products. Appearance must carry a deeper, integrative argument
about the nature of the artificial in 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
of products; and the desire and ability of human beings to use prod-
ucts in everyday life in 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 be
added together in 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 is turning to the modality
of impossibility. It points, for example, toward the impossibility of
rigid boundaries between industrial design, engineering, and mar-
keting. It points toward the impossibility of relying on any one of
the sciences (natural, social, or humanistic) for adequate solutions to
what are the inherently wicked problems of design thinking. Finally,

20

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 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-
55) "Neoteric" is a term often associated tinue to be puzzled by the neoteric art of design." But the masters
in Western culture with the emergence
of this new liberal art are practical men and women, and the dis-
of new liberal arts. Neoteric arts are
arts of "new learning." For a discus- cipline of thinking that they employ is gradually becoming accessible
sion of neoteric and paleoteric liberal
to all individuals in everyday life. A common discipline of design
arts, see Richard Buchanan, "Design
as a Liberal Art," Papers: The 1990 thinking-more than the particular products created by that dis-
Conference on Design Education, cipline today-is changing our culture, not only in its external
Education Committee of the
Industrial Designers Society of manifestations but in its internal character.
America (Pasadena, CA, 1990).

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

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