Editorial: Theories Of and About Design

Since the " design method movement " began in Europe in 1960's (Cross, 1984), design research has moved along two closely related directions: design theories of how to design, which are often called design methodology, and design theories about what is design, which take design as a phenomenon for scientific investigation. For the former, one can find systematic design methodologies such as synthesis The ultimate goal of design research is to discover and/or develop orders underlying or upholding design activities (Horváth, 2004). This special issue includes six papers focusing on development, application, or validation of theories of and about design. The first paper included in this issue, titled " Fundamentals of design and deployment of large complex systems: OLEV, MH, and Mixalloy " , is contributed by Prof. Nam Suh. In early 1980's, Prof. Suh developed his well-known axiomatic design theory (Suh, 1990), which provides two basic principles for a good design. His strong belief in a rational design process has motivated and inspired many design researchers and has significantly influenced the advancement of design science. In this paper, Prof. Suh demonstrates the power of rational design and system development using the axiomatic design theory through three case studies. The case studies involve large and highly innovative systems: On-Line Electric Vehicle (OLEV), Mobile 12 Harbor (MH), and Mixalloy. In contrast to a widely observed phenomenon that many major corporations often miss the delivery dates of their newly developed systems and exceed the originally estimated development cost, these three innovative systems were developed and deployed at minimum cost and on time. The major reason behind their successes was because in each case the entire system had been designed based on a firm theoretical foundation for system development and rigorous checking of the system architecture. These case studies, among many other success stories in applying the axiomatic design theory, show that axiomatic design theory can be used to solve complex transdisciplinary problems.

[1]  Herbert A. Simon,et al.  The Sciences of the Artificial , 1970 .

[2]  G. Altshuller.  Creativity as an exact science : the theory of the solution of inventive problems , 1984 .

[3]  Masaki Suwa,et al.  Macroscopic analysis of design processes based on a scheme for coding designers' cognitive actions , 1998 .

[4]  Yong Zeng,et al.  Environment-Based formulation of Design Problem , 2004, Trans. SDPS.

[5]  W. E. Eder,et al.  Theory of Technical Systems: A Total Concept Theory for Engineering Design , 1988 .

[6]  Yong Zeng,et al.  A science-based approach to product design theory Part II: formulation of design requirements and products , 1999 .

[7]  Gabriela Goldschmidt,et al.  On visual design thinking: the vis kids of architecture , 1994 .

[8]  Tetsuo Tomiyama,et al.  A review of function modeling: Approaches and applications , 2008, Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing.

[9]  Tetsuo Tomiyama,et al.  Extended general design theory , 1986 .

[10]  Steve Caplin,et al.  Principles Of Design , 2011 .

[11]  Armand Hatchuel,et al.  A NEW APPROACH OF INNOVATIVE DESIGN : AN INTRODUCTION TO C-K THEORY. , 2003 .

[12]  Eleni Stroulia,et al.  Functional device models and model-Based diagnosis in adaptive design , 1996, Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing.

[13]  Yong Zeng,et al.  A science-based approach to product design theory Part I: formulation and formalization of design process , 1999 .

[14]  Christopher Alexander.  Notes on the Synthesis of Form , 1964 .

[15]  Daniel D. Frey,et al.  Validation of design methods: lessons from medicine , 2006 .

[16]  Max Jacobson,et al.  A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction , 1981 .

[17]  Alex H. B. Duffy,et al.  Towards an ontology of generic engineering design activities , 2003 .

[18]  J. Eekels,et al.  On the fundamentals of engineering design science: The geography of engineering design science. Part 1 , 2000 .

[19]  Yoram Reich,et al.  The Study of Design Research Methodology , 1995 .

[20]  Lucienne Blessing,et al.  DRM, a Design Research Methodology , 2009 .

[21]  Georges M. Fadel,et al.  Affordance based design: a relational theory for design , 2009 .

[22]  Imre Horváth,et al.  A treatise on order in engineering design research , 2004 .

[23]  Yong Zeng,et al.  On the logic of design , 1991 .

[24]  J. Dixon,et al.  Engineering Design , 2019, Springer Handbook of Mechanical Engineering.

[25]  Willemien Visser,et al.  The Cognitive Artifacts of Designing , 2006 .

[26]  John S. Gero,et al.  Design Prototypes: A Knowledge Representation Schema for Design , 1990, AI Mag..

[27]  R. D. Venter,et al.  An axiomatic theory of engineering design information , 2005, Engineering with Computers.

[28]  Kristin L. Wood,et al.  Development of a Functional Basis for Design , 2000 .

[29]  Yasushi Umeda,et al.  A CAD for Functional Design , 1993 .

[30]  Nigel Cross,et al.  Developments in design methodology , 1984 .

[31]  D. Schoen,et al.  The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action , 1985 .

[32]  Donald A. Sch.  The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action , 1983 .

[33]  Yong Zeng,et al.  ENVIRONMENT-BASED DESIGN (EBD) , 2011 .

[34]  Oded Maimon,et al.  A Mathematical Theory of Design: Foundations, Algorithms and Applications , 1998 .

[35]  N. Cross.  Designerly ways of knowing , 2006 .

[36]  Yong Zeng,et al.  Axiomatic Theory of Design Modeling , 2002, Trans. SDPS.

[37]  N. F. M. Roozenburg,et al.  Product design: Fundamentals and methods , 1996 .