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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
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1511637
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Richard
Buchanan
Wicked
Problems
in
Design
Thinking
This
essay
is based on
a
paper presented
at
"Colloque
Recherches
sur
le
Design:
Incitations,
Implications,
Interactions,"
the
first French
university symposium
on
design
research
held
October
1990 at
l'Universite
de
Technologie
de
Compiegne,
Compilgne,
France.
Introduction
Despite
efforts to discover
the foundations
of
design
thinking
in
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
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
1)
From
Richard
McKeon,
"The
Transformation
of the Liberal
Arts
in
the
Renaissance,"
Developments
in
the
Early
Renaissance,
ed.
Bernard
S.
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
in 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
in
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
like human
nature
was
meant
to
be
all-embracing
in
its
scope.
...
Our
guiding
principle
was that
design
is neither
an intellectual
nor
a
material
affair,
but
simply
an
integral
part
of the
stuff
of
life,
necessary
for
everyone
in a civilized
society." Scope
of
Total
Architecture
(New
York:
Collier
Books,
1970),
19-20.
The term
"architectonic,"
in
this
case,
transcends
the
derivative
term
"architecture"
as
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
as
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.
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
as liberal
arts,
but
they
flourish
as
specialized
studies,
leading
to
the
perception
of an ever more
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
is
important
in this context.
The
significance
of
seeking
a
scientific
basis
for
design
does
not
lie
in
the
likelihood
of
reducing
design
to
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
culture
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
by
John Dewey
in
The
Questfor
Certainty
as
the
perception
of
a new
center
of the
universe.
The
old center
of the
universe
was the
mind
knowing
by,
means
of an
equipment
of
powers
complete
within
itself,
and
merely
exercised
upon
an
antecedent
external
mate-
rial
equally
complete
within
itself.
The new
center
is
indefinite
interactions
taking
place
within
a course
of
nature
which
is
not
fixed and
complete,
but
which
is
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.
6
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.
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
and honored.
Carrying
these observations
further,
Dewey
explores
the new
rela-
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
enjoyed meanings.
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,
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
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
the
arts of
production
and
science has
been
established.
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
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
dtinction beteen fine and
sha
We
mistakenly
identify technology
with
one
particular
type
of
distinction between fine and useful arts.
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-
8
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
in
design
literature
because
of its definition
of
design,
it is
often read with little
atten-
tion
given
to
the
full
argument.
A
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 an
exceptionally
useful work.
13)
See Richard
Buchanan,
"Design
and
Technology
in the Second
Copernican
Revolution,"
Revue des sciences
et
techniques
de la
conception
(The
Journal
of
Design
Sciences and
Technology, January,
1992),
I:1.
14)
The
phrase
"bookish
culture" is used
by
literary
critic
George
Steiner and
is a
theme
in
a
forthcoming
book
by
Ivan
Illich,
In 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.
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),'
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.l
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
Design
Issues:
Vol.
VIII,
Number
2
Spring
1992
9
16)
Some of the
psychological
and
social
dimensions
of this area
are
illustrated in
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 of
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
L.
Flood and Werner
Ulrich,
"Testament
to
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
to
systems,
see
James
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
to
the
organization
of
experience
are well
represented
in
twentieth
century
design
thinking.
For
example,
see
Christopher
Alexander,
Notes on the
Synthesis
of
Form
(Cambridge:
Harvard
University
Press,
1973).
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.7
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.
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.
10
19)
Such
judgments
are the
measure
of
objec-
tivity
in
contemporary
design thinking.
Without
objectivity
to
ground
the
possi-
bilities
discovered
in
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.
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-
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
as
"deconstructionist
architecture" are
often the
result of
attempts
at innovative
repositioning. They
indicate a
desire
to break old
categories,
as
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.
Some
experiments
have fallen
like 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
20
toward
new
questions.2
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.
It
was an
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-
Design
Issues: Vol.
VIII,
Number 2
Spring
1992
11
21)
Although
still a common and
useful
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
search
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
of
deconstructionist
literary
theory
the
rationale
for their work. Visual
experi-
mentation
is an
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.
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
12
23)
The
concept
of
placements
will
remain
difficult
to
grasp
as
long
as individuals
are
trained
to
believe that
the
only
path
of
reasoning begins
with
categories
and
proceeds
in
deductive chains
of
propo-
sitions.
Designers
are concerned
with
invention as well as
judgment,
and
their
reasoning
is
practical
because
it
takes
place
in situations
where
the results are
influenced
by
diverse
opinions.
24)
Some
placements
have
become so com-
mon in
twentieth-century design
that
they hardly
attract
attention.
Nonetheless,
such
placements
are
clas-
sic
features
of
design
thinking,
and in
the
hands of a
skilled
designer
retain
their
inventive
potential.
Designer Jay
Doblin sometimes
employed
a
cascade
of
placements
stemming
from the
basic
placement
"intrinsic/extrinsic." Doblin's
placements
serve
as a heuristic device
to
reveal
the
factors
in
design thinking
and
product development.
Other
place-
ments
are
described
by
Doblin in
"Innovation,
A Cook
Book
Approach,"
n.d.
(Typewritten.)
With different
intent,
Ezio
Manzini
recently argued
that
the
designer
needs two mental instruments
with
opposite
qualities
to examine a
design
situation:
a
microscope
and a
macroscope.
The
mental
microscope
is
for
examining
"how
things
work,
down
to
the
smallest
details,"
particularly
in
regard
to advances in materials
science.
A
further
series of
placements
fill
out
the
microscope
to
give
it
efficacy.
See
Ezio
Manzini,
The
Materials
of
Invention: Materials
and
Design
(Cambridge:
M.I.T.
Press,
1989),
58.
25)
The ease
with
which
placements
are
converted
into
categories
should make
any
designer
or
design
educator
cau-
tious
in
how
they
share the
conceptual
tools of their work. The
placements
that
might shape
an innovative
approach
for
the founder
of
a school of
design
thinking
often
become
categories
of
truth in the hands of
disciples
or
descen-
dants.
26)
Thomas Kuhn was interested
in
the
repositionings
that
mark revolutions in
scientific
theory.
His
study
of this
phe-
nomenon,
perhaps contrary
to
his
initial
expectations,
has
helped
to
alter
the
neo-positivist interpretation
of the
history
of
science.
But
Kuhn's
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
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.2
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
as
the
designer's style,
then,
is
sometimes
more
than
just
a
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
categories
of
thinking,
the result can
be mannered imitations of
an
earlier invention that are no
longer
relevant to the
discovery
of
specific possibilities
in
a new
situation.
Ideas
are
then
forced onto
a
situation rather than
discovered
in
the
particularities
and novel
possibilities
of
that situation.5
For
the
practicing designer, placements
are
primary
and cate-
gories
are
secondary.
The
reverse holds true
for
design
history,
theory,
and
criticism,
except
at those
moments when a new direc-
tion for
inquiry
is
opened.
At such
times,
a
repositioning
of
the
problems
of
design,
such as a
change
in
the
subject
matter
to
be
addressed,
the methods to be
employed,
or the
principles
to
be
explored,
occurs
by
means
of
placements.
Then,
history,
theory,
or criticism are
"redesigned"
for the
individual
investigator
and
sometimes for
groups
of
investigators.
As the
discipline
of
design
studies adds a
reflective
and
philosophic
dimension to
design
his-
tory, theory,
and
criticism,
positive
consequences
are
possible.
Historians,
for
example, may
reconsider the
placement
of
design
history
as it has
been
practiced
throughout
most of the
twentieth
century
and
work
to discover other
innovative
possibilities.
Discontent
with
the results
of
current
design history
suggests
that
new
repositionings
are
called for
if the
discipline
is
to retain
vital-
ity
and relevance to
contemporary problems.
The doctrine of
placements
will
require
further
development
if
it is to
be
recognized
as a tool
in
design
studies and
design
think-
ing,
but
it can
also be
a
surprisingly
precise
way
of
addressing
conceptual space
and the non-dimensional
images
from
which
con-
28
crete
possibilities
emerge
for
testing
in
objective
circumstances.
The natural and
spontaneous
use
of
placements by designers
is
Design
Issues:
Vol.
VIII,
Number
2
Spring
1992
13
"paradigm
shifts"
were
never
devel-
oped
to their fullest intellectual roots
in
rhetorical and dialectical
invention,
which are based
on
the
theory
of
top-
ics. Chaim Perelman has
developed
an
important contemporary
approach
to
what is called here the
doctrine of
placements.
See Chaim Perelman and
L.
Olbrechts-Tyteca,
The
New
Rhetoric:
A Treatise on
Argumentation
(Notre
Dame:
University
of
Notre
Dame
Press,
1969).
See
also,
Stephen
E.
Toulmin,
The Uses of
Argument
(Cambridge: Cambridge
University
Press,
1958)
for a
modern
discovery
of
dialectical
topics. Although
remote
from the immediate interests
of
design-
ers,
these
works are cited because
they
deal with
practical
reasoning
and
have
important
bearing
on
aspects
of
design
theory, including
the
logic
of
decision
making
discussed
in
Simon's The
Sciences of
the
Artificial.
27)
In order to
solve such
problems,
more
attention should
be
given
to the
vari-
ous
conceptions
of
design
held
by
designers
in the
past.
This
would
repo-
sition
design
history
from material
objects
or
"things"
to
thought
and
action. In other
words,
what
design-
ers
say
and
do,
the
history
of their art
as
philosophy
and
practice.
For a dis-
cussion
of the
subject
matter
of
design
history,
see
Victor
Margolin's
forth-
coming
"Design
History
or
Design
Studies:
Subject
Matter and
Methods,"
Design
Studies.
28)
The
phrase
"non-dimensional
images"
refers to all
images
created
in
the mind
as
part
of
design
thinking
and,
in
par-
ticular,
to
the
various schematizations
of
conceptual
placements
(e.g.
hierar-
chical,
horizontal,
or in matrix and
table
form)
that
may
aid
invention.
29)
This list could
also include
the human-
istic
disciplines
and the fine
arts,
because
there
is as much
difficulty
in
commu-
nicating
between
some
traditional
humanists
and
designers
as between
designers
and
scientists. This is evident
in
the
persistent
view that
design
is sim-
ply
a decorative
art,
adapting
the
principles
of
the fine arts
to
utilitarian
ends,
held
by many
humanists.
30)
William
R.
Spillers,
ed.,
Basic
Questions
of
Design
Theory
(Amsterdam:
North
Holland
Publishing
Company,
1974).
The
conference,
funded
by
the
National
Science
Foundation,
was held at
Columbia
University.
31)
Vladimer
Bazjanac,
"Architectural
Design Theory:
Models
of the
Design
Process,"
Basic
Questions
of
Design
Theory,
3-20.
already
evident;
an
explicit
understanding
of the
doctrine of
place-
ments
will
make it an
important
element of
design
as
a
liberal art.
All men
and
women
require
a
liberal art of
design
to
live
well
in
the
complexity
of
the framework based
in
signs, things,
actions,
and
thoughts.
On one
hand,
such
an
art
will
enable
individuals
to
participate
more
directly
in
this framework and
contribute to
its
development.
On the
other,
professional designers
could
be
regard-
ed as masters
in
its
exploration.
The
ability
of
designers
to discover
new
relationships among signs, things,
actions,
and
thoughts
is one
indication that
design
is not
merely
a
technical
specialization
but
a new liberal art.
The Wicked
Problems
Theory
of
Design
Recent conferences on
design
are evidence
of
a
coherent,
if not
always systematic,
effort
to
reach a clearer
understanding
of
design
as an
integrative
discipline.
However,
the
participants,
who
increas-
ingly
come from diverse
professions
and academic
disciplines,
are
not drawn
together
because
they
share a
common
definition of
design;
a common
methodology,
a common
philosophy,
or even
a
common
set of
objects
to
which
everyone agrees
that the term
"design"
should be
applied. They
are drawn
together
because
they
share a mutual interest
in a
common
theme: the
conception
and
planning of
the
artificial.
Different definitions
of
design
and differ-
ent
specifications
of
the
methodology
of
design
are variations
of
this broad
theme,
each a concrete
exploration
of
what
is
possible
in
the
development
of its
meanings
and
implications.
Communication
is
possible
at
such
meetings
because
the results
of
research and
dis-
cussion,
despite
wide differences
in
intellectual and
practical
perspectives,
are
always
connected
by
this theme
and, therefore,
supplemental.
This is
only
possible,
of
course,
if
individuals
have
the wit to discover what
is
useful
in each other's work and can cast
the material
in
terms
of
their
own vision
of
design thinking.
Members of
the scientific
community,
however,
must be
puz-
zled
by
the
types
of
problems
addressed
by
professional
designers
and
by
the
patterns
of
reasoning
they employ.
While scientists
share
in the
new
liberal
art
of
design thinking, they
are also
mas-
ters of
specialized
subject
matters
and
their
related
methods,
as
found
in
physics,
chemistry, biology,
mathematics,
the
social sci-
ences,
or
one of the
many
subfields into
which
these sciences
have
been divided.
This creates one of the central
problems
of com-
munication between scientists and
designers,
because the
problems
addressed
by designers
seldom
fall
solely
within
the boundaries
of
any
one
of
these
subject
matters.
The
problem
of communication between
scientists and
design-
ers was
evident in a
special
conference on
design theory
held in
New
York in 1974.30 This
conference was
interesting
for several
reasons,
the
most
significant directly
related
to the content of
the
meeting
itself. Reviewed
in
one of the initial
papers,3
the "wicked
14
32)
Graph theory, developed by
the math-
ematician Frank
Harary,
also served to
connect the work of researchers
in
many
areas. It was
reported by
the
orga-
nizers that
Harary,
who attended this
conference and delivered the
paper
"Graphs
as
Designs," suggested
that
the basic structure of
design
theory
could be found
in his work on structural
models. Whether or
not
Harary
made
such a
suggestion,
it is
possible
to see
in
graph theory,
and,
notably,
the
theory
of directed
graphs,
a mathematical
expression
of the
doctrine
of
place-
ments.
Comparison may
establish a
surprising
connection
between
the arts
of words and the
mathematical arts of
things,
with further
significance
for
the
view of
design
as a new liberal art.
"Schemata" are the
connecting
link,
for
placements may
be
schematized as
fig-
ures of
thought,
and schemata are forms
of
graphs,
directed or otherwise. For
more on
graph theory
see F.
Harary,
R.
Norman,
and D.
Cartwright,
Structural
Models:
An
Introduction to
the
Theory
of Directed
Graphs
(New
York:
Wiley,
1965).
33)
A
series of
conferences on
Design
Methods held
in
the United
Kingdom
in
1962, 1965,
and
1967,
led to the for-
mation of the
Design
Research
Society
in
1967,
that
today
continues to
publish
the
journal
Design
Studies. Parallel
interest
in
the United States led to
the
establishment of the
Design
Methods
Group
in
1966,
which
published
the
DMG Newsletter
(1966-71),
renamed
the DMG-DRS
Journal:
Design
Research and
Methods,
and then
renamed
in
1976 and
published
to the
present
as
Design
Methods and
Theories. For one
attempt
to
describe
and
integrate
a set of
methods used
in
design
thinking,
see
J.
Christopher
Jones,
Design
Methods: Seeds of
Human Futures
(1970;
rpt
New York:
John
Wiley
&
Sons,
1981).
Many
of the
methods
Jones
presents
are conscious-
ly transposed
from other
disciplines.
However,
they
all can be
interpreted
as
techniques
for
repositioning design
problems, using placements
to discov-
er new
possibilities.
34)
Rittel,
who died in
1990,
completed
his
career
by
teaching
at the
University
of
California at
Berkeley
and the
University
of
Stuttgart.
For a brief bio-
graphical
sketch,
see Herbert
Lindinger,
Ulm
Design:
The
Morality
of
Objects
(Cambridge:
M.I.T.
Press,
1990),
274.
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
applications
of
design.3
Also
significant
was the
difficulty
that
most
of the
participants
had
in
understanding
each other.
Although
an
observation of an outsider on the
dynamics
of the
meeting,
it is
an
excellent
example
of a "wicked
problem"
of
design
thinking.
The
wickedproblems approach
was formulated
by
Horst Rittel
in
the
1960s,
when
design methodology
was a
subject
of intense
interest.3
A
mathematician,
designer,
and former teacher at the
Hochschule fur
Gestaltung
(HfG)
Ulm,
Rittel
sought
an alterna-
tive to the
linear,
step-by-step
model
of the
design process being
explored by many designers
and
design
theorists.3
Although
there
are
many
variations of the linear
model,
its
proponents
hold that
the
design process
is divided into two distinct
phases:
problem defini-
tion
and
problem
solution. Problem
definition
is an
analytic
sequence
in
which
the
designer
determines
all of the
elements of the
problem
and
specifies
all of the
requirements
that a
successful
design
solu-
tion
must have. Problem
solution
is a
synthetic sequence
in
which
the various
requirements
are combined and
balanced
against
each
other,
yielding
a final
plan
to be carried into
production.
In
the
abstract,
such
a
model
may appear
attractive
because it
suggests
a
methodological precision
that
is,
in
its
key
features,
inde-
pendent
from the
perspective
of
the
individual
designer.
In
fact,
many
scientists and business
professionals,
as
well as some
design-
ers,
continue to
find the idea of a linear model
attractive,
believing
that it
represents
the
only hope
for a
"logical"
understanding
of
the
design process.
However,
some critics were
quick
to
point
out two
obvious
points
of
weakness:
one,
the actual
sequence
of
design
thinking
and decision
making
is not a
simple
linear
process;
and
two,
the
problems
addressed
by
designers
do
not,
in
actual
practice,
yield
to
any
linear
analysis
and
synthesis yet
proposed.
Rittel
argued
that most of the
problems
addressed
by
designers
are
wickedproblems.
As
described
in
the first
published
report
of
Rittel's
idea,
wickedproblems
are a "class of social
system problems
which are
ill-formulated,
where the
information is
confusing,
where
there are
many
clients and decision
makers with
conflicting
values,
and
where the
ramifications
in
the whole
system
are
thoroughly
confusing."37
This is
an
amusing description
of
what
confronts
designers
in
every
new situation. But
most
important,
it
points
toward a
fundamental issue that
lies behind
practice:
the
relation-
ship
between
determinacy
and
indeterminacy
in
design
thinking.
The
linear model of
design thinking
is
based on
determinate
prob-
lems which have
definite
conditions. The
designer's
task is to
identify
those
conditions
precisely
and then
calculate a solution. In
con-
trast,
the
wicked-problems
approach suggests
that there
is a
fundamental
indeterminacy
in
all
but the
most trivial
design
prob-
Design
Issues: Vol.
VIII,
Number
2
Spring
1992
15
35)
Bazjanac
presents
an
interesting
com-
parison
of linear
models and the wicked
problems
approach.
36)
The
phrase
wicked
problems
was
bor-
rowed
from
philosopher
Karl
Popper.
However,
Rittel
developed
the idea
in
a
different direction. Rittel is
another
example
of
someone
initially
influenced
by neo-positivist
ideas
who,
when
con-
fronted with
the
actual
processes
of
practical
reasoning
in concrete circum-
stances,
sought
to
develop
a
new
approach
related to rhetoric.
37)
The
first
published report
of
Rittel's
concept
of wicked
problems
was
pre-
sented
by
C. West
Churchman,
"Wicked
Problems,"
Management
Science,
(December
1967),
vol.
4,
no.
14,
B-141-42. His
editorial is
particu-
larly
interesting
for
its discussion of the
moral
problems
of
design
and
planning
that
can
occur when
individuals
mis-
takenly
believe
that
they
have
effectively
taken the "wickedness"
out
of
design
problems.
38)
See Horst W.
J.
Rittel
and
Melvin M.
Webber,
"Dilemmas
in
a General
Theory
of
Planning,"
working
paper
presented
at
the Institute of Urban and
Regional Development, University
of
California,
Berkeley,
November 1972.
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.
lems-problems
where,
as
Rittel
suggests,
the
"wickedness"
has
already
been
taken out to
yield
determinate or
analytic problems.
To
understand
what this
means,
it
is
important
to
recognize
that
indeterminacy
is
quite
different
from
undetermined.
Indeterminacy
implies
that
there
are
no
definitive
conditions or
limits to
design
problems.
This
is
evident,
for
example,
in
the
ten
properties
of
wicked
problems
that Rittel
initially
identified
in 1972.
(1)
Wicked
problems
have
no
definitive
formulation,
but
every
formulation of
a
wickedproblem
corresponds
to
the
formulation of a
solution.
(2)
Wicked
problems
have no
stopping
rules.
(3)
Solutions to
wickedproblems
cannot be
true or
false,
only good
or bad.
(4)
In
solving
wicked
problems
there is
no
exhaustive
list
of
admissible
operations.
(5)
For
every
wicked
problem
there is
always
more
than
one
possible
explanation,
with
explanations
depending
on
the
Weltanschauung
of the
designer.39
(6)
Every
wicked
problem
is
a
symptom
of
another,
"higher
level,"
problem.0
(7)
No
formulation and
solution
of
a
wicked
problem
has
a
definitive
test.
(8)
Solving
a
wickedproblem
is a "one
shot"
operation,
with
no room
for trial and
error.4
(9)
Every
wicked
problem
is
unique.
(10)
The
wicked
problem
solver
has
no
right
to be
wrong-they
are
fully
responsible
for their
actions.
This
is
a
remarkable
list,
and it is
tempting
to
go
no
further than
elaborate
the
meaning
of
each
property,
providing
concrete exam-
ples
drawn from
every
area of
design
thinking.
But
to
do so
would
leave a
fundamental
question
unanswered.
Why
are
design
problems
indeterminate
and,
therefore,
wicked? Neither Rittel nor
any
of
those
studying
wicked
problems
has
attempted
to answer this
ques-
tion,
so
the
wicked-problems
approach
has
remained
only
a
description
of the
social
reality
of
designing
rather than the
beginnings
of
a well-
grounded
theory
of
design.
However,
the answer to
the
question
lies
in
something rarely
considered: the
peculiar
nature of the
subject
matter of
design.
Design
problems
are
"indeterminate"
and "wicked"
because
design
has
no
special
subject
matter
of
its
own
apart
from
what a
designer
conceives
it to be. The
subject
matter of
design
is
potentially
universal in
scope,
because
design
thinking may
be
applied
to
any
area of human
expe-
rience.
But
in
the
process
of
application,
the
designer
must discover
or invent
aparticular
subject
out of the
problems
and
issues of
spe-
cific
circumstances. This
sharply
contrasts with
the
disciplines
of
science,
which are
concerned
with
understanding
the
principles,
laws, rules,
or
structures
that are
necessarily
embodied
in
existing
sub-
ject
matters.
Such
subject
matters
are
undetermined or
16
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
on
and
interpretations
of what constitutes
nature and natural
processes.
This is
a
factor
in
accounting
for the
surprising
pluralism
of
philosophies among
prac-
ticing
scientists and
suggests
that even
science
is
shaped by
an
application
of
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
a
particular
that does not
yet
exist.
Indeterminacy
for the scientist
is on 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
in
New
Design
Thinking," Design
Issues
VII-1
(Fall, 1990):
78-84. Without
understanding
a
designer's
view of sub-
ject
matter on
the
general
level,
there
is
little
intelligibility
in
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 of
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
as
possible
in the
product
development process
is one of the
sources of
entrapment
in
corporate
culture. Professional
designers
should
be
recognized
for
their
ability
to
con-
ceive
products
as well
as
plan
them.
under-determined,
requiring
further
investigation
to make them
more
fully
determinate.
But
they
are
not
radically
indeterminate
in
a
way
directly comparable
to that
of
design.4
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.
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
Design
Issues:
Vol.
VIII,
Number
2
Spring
1992
17
45)
The earliest
example
of this science
is
Aristotle's
Poetics.
Although
this work
is 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
by
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-
ic
analysis
can be
extended
to the
study
of
making
"useful"
objects.
When
designer
and architect
Emilio Ambaz
refers to
the
"poetics
of the
pragmatic,"
he means
not
only
esthetic
or
elegant
features
of
everyday
objects,
but also
a method
or
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:
"I have shown
that
a science of
artificial
phenomena
is
always
in
imminent
danger
of
dissolving
and
vanishing.
The
peculiar properties
of
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
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
of their
generic
kinds.4 But
in
all
such
studies,
the
activities of
design
thinking
are
easily forgotten
or
are reduced to the
kind of
product
that
is
finally produced.
The
problem
for
designers
is
to
conceive and
plan
what does not
yet
exist,
and this occurs
in
the context
of the inde-
terminacy
of
wickedproblems,
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."4
In
this
sense,
Simon's
sci-
ence
of the artificial
is
perhaps
closer to
what
Dewey
means
by
technology
as
a
systematic
discipline
of
experimental
thinking.
However,
Simon
has little to
say
about the
difference between
designing
a
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
follow from the
natural laws that
surround
artifacts.
For all of
the
insight
Simon
has
in
distinguishing
the artificial
as
a domain
of humanmade
products
different
from
objects
created
by
natural
processes,
he does not
capture
the radical
sense
in which
designers
explore
the essence
of what
the artificial
may
be
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
18
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.
conceives
it
to
be,
and a
science of
existing
humanmade
products
whose
nature Simon
happens
to believe
is a
manipulation
of mate-
49
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,0
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-
Design
Issues:
Vol.
VIII,
Number
2
Spring
1992
19
52)
For
Rittel's
view of
argumentation
in
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).
tury:
design
as
communication, construction,
strategic planning,
or
systemic
integration.5
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 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
materials,
mechanisms,
structures,
and
systems;
while
marketing
tends
to stress
what
is
contingent
in
the
changing
atti-
tudes and
preferences
of
potential
users.
Because
of
these modal
differences
in
approaching design
problems,
three
of
the most
important
professions
of
design
thinking
are
often
regarded
as
bit-
ter
opponents
in the
design enterprise,
irreconcilably
distant
from
each other.4
What
design
as 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
of
arguing-reciprocal expressions
of what conditions
and
shapes
the
"useful"
in
human
experience.
As a liberal
art of
technological
cul-
ture,
design points
toward a
new
attitude about the
appearance
of
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
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).
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.
Design
Issues: Vol.
VIII,
Number
2
Spring
1992
21
