Episode 4 - A Short History of Design Methods

Design Theory and Methodology 2019

Mieke talks to Peter about his knowledge of the history of design methods. She then discusses the interview with Annemiek van Boeijen, one of the editors for the Delft Design Guide, available in the IDE bookshop, with a second edition coming soon.

Peter recently published a paper called: You make it and you try it out: Seeds of design discipline futures which presents the ideas he talks about in the podcast, describing the development of design methods from the early 1970’s to the present day. His inspirations the classic Design methods: Seeds of human futures by John Chris Jones. The introduction to the 1980 edition of Jones’ book is especially interesting as it reflects on how his original methods were received, and illustrates how he embraced chance-based methods of design.

Peter also mentions another well-known work in design methods called Dilemmas in a general theory of planning by Rittel and Webber in which they give 10 key characteristics that define design problems as ‘wicked’. This is a term that has recently become popular again as ideas about complexity in design have resurfaced. Peter mentions the conjecture – analysis model of designing which is described, along with other models of designing, in Models of the design process: Integrating across the disciplines by Norbert Roozenburg and Nigel Cross.

Nigel Cross is one of the leading figures in current day design methods and a former Professor at Delft (he was also a major figure in the development of design thinking). You can read the lecture he gave when he left the IDE faculty: The method in their madness: Understanding how designers think where he makes the straightjacket / life jacket distinction for design methods referred to by Peter.

In the discussion following the interview Mieke mentions the Delft service design firm Muzes as experts in using context mapping.