Defining Design

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Defining Design

One of Victor Papaneck's books concentrates on the element of

'Design'; in this book he gives his opinion, definitions and some

facts based on design. Below I have taken and supported some of

Papaneck's views (given in the chapter 'what is design?'). In this

supporting essay, I have tried to back up Papaneck's views with

opinions from other people.

Papaneck's main definition of design that he gives in this chapter is

"Design is the conscious effort to impose meaningful order". Everyone

has a different definition of design however most of them are similar.

William R. Miller's (1996) definition of design supports Papaneck's

view, "Design is the thought process comprising the creation of an

entity. Design is a conscious activity, guided by aims and objectives.

It refers to planned and organized actions intended to bring about

some predetermined outcome, although there may also be accidental or

unexpected results."

"The rightness of any design solution will depend on the meaning with

which we invest the arrangement".

"The mode of action by which a design fulfils its purpose is its

function".

"All men are designers. All that we do, almost all the time, is

design, for design is basic to all human activity"

"Design as a problem solving activity can never, by definition, yield

the one right answer: it will always produce an infinite number of

answers, some 'righter' and some 'wronger' The 'rightness' of any

design solution will depend on the meaning with which we invest the

arrangement". This point Papaneck has made can be backed up by a

similar view from William R. Miller, "Design is sometimes referred to

as a problem-solving activity. This is a fundamental error, because

very rarely can a definitive answer to a design problem be provided.

Design problems do not lend themselves to being "solved". Design is a

process of compromise involving conflicting factors, and the best a

designer or design team can hope for is to "resolve" the conflict

using a certain mix of the conflicting factors".

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