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The Design Process Workshop Goldsmiths College, University of London, Department of Computing November 21-25, 2005 |
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The Design Thesis Points to Consider for Tuesday's Session |
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In Tuesday's workshop session we will, among other things define your project in terms of its constraints, needs, and purpose. To help you get started, cast your mind over the following before Tuesday's sessions begin. You do not need to have everything ready, just have these thoughts revolving in your mind by the time you get to Goldsmiths. Some of these topics overlap, but each should offer a facet to the definition of your design project. We will discuss each of these in more detail in the introduction to our workshop on Monday as well as on Tuesday. 1 Product What do you need to design? What is a brief description of your product? (We will use this word in its widest sense, as in: What you will produce.) Note the use of the word "need." Try to envisage your project from the point of view of the necessity of its coming into existence. This can, of course, be as serious or trivial as you like, but there must be a need for what you are doing. (See below.) 2 Description What is its nature? Go into more detail. What is your product in and of itself? How is it different from things that already exist? How does it function? Can you describe it metaphorically? 3 Audience Who is it for? The audience for your designs can be an actual end-user, it can be a client who is asking you to create something that they will not use themselves, or it can be an actual "audience" in the sense of someone perceiving your designs, aurally or visually, without necessarily being involved in their use or concerned about their creation. The end user can of course be you as well. Think of the different needs and concerns each of these brings to the table. How can you address and resolve the differences, and even the conflicts between them? 4 Problem Why is it needed? Again, the need. Having defined your audience, it may become clearer what needs your design fulfills. This is the question to which your design is the solution. There is a problem to be solved, in the manner of a mathematical problem or puzzle. 5 Solution What are the benefits of it? How do your designs create a solution to the problems stated above? What are the conceivable mechanics, materials, methods, operational issues, aesthetics, a.s.f. that resolve the issues at hand? 6 Challenge Why is this interesting? Why is this an interesting project for you to work on? Why should the results be interesting to your audience? 7 Vision What will you bring to it? What will you do, in the course of your designing, that will make the results uniquely yours? What do you have or know personally, professionally, philosophically, that will mark this project as your creation? 8 Methods How will you proceed? Now what? What do you need to do to get started? Research? Look out the window for a while? Talk to someone? Sketch? Write code? Take a nap? What next? And then what? And then? What tools do you need? |
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