This book is about design. Everybody does design, from artists to engineers, from interior designers to industrial designers. We design our days and we design our lives. This book presents the three universal activities that everyone uses, no matter who they are or what they do. These three activities are 1.) clarify an ambiguous project, 2.) generate ideas, and 3.) select one idea for implementation. This book also presents how the psychology of design impacts our effectiveness with each of these three activities, from creativity through decision making, intuition through analysis, and cognitive enhancement through design biases. Although the examples provided in this book primarily target the diverse disciplines of art (painting) and engineering, they can be easily understood and adapted by designers in any discipline.
This book helps advanced design students and working professionals in any discipline to understand why and when the basic design principles they were taught work or do not work and, as a result, improve their design effectiveness.
Author(s): John Reis
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 223
City: Cham
Preface
Acknowledgements
Contents
About the Author
1 The Universal Nature of Design
1.1 Introduction
1.2 I Know What Design is, I Think
1.3 Universal Design Activities
1.3.1 Universal Design Activity: Clarify the Project
1.3.2 Universal Design Activity: Generate Ideas
1.3.3 Universal Design Activity: Select One Idea
1.4 Design is Structured, but Messy
1.5 Design and Problem Solving
1.6 Design and Creativity
1.7 Design Across the Disciplines
1.7.1 STEM Disciplines
1.7.2 Art and Engineering
1.7.2.1 Emotional or Physical Purpose
1.7.2.2 Intuitive or Analytical Thinking
1.7.2.3 Creativity
1.7.2.4 Social or Solitary
1.7.2.5 Implementation of Design
1.8 Closing
1.9 Questions
References
2 How We Think and Learn Design
2.1 Introduction
2.2 How Do We Think?
2.2.1 Intuitive and Analytical Thinking
2.2.2 Which Thinking Mode Should We Use?
2.2.3 Heuristic Thinking
2.2.4 Feelings
2.3 How Do We Learn Design?
2.3.1 Formal Design Education
2.3.2 Informal Design Training
2.4 Closing
2.5 Questions
References
3 Universal Design Activity: Clarify the Project
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Steps to Clarifying the Project
3.2.1 Identify the Purpose
3.2.2 Identify the Constraints
3.3 Why Clarify the Project
3.4 How Do We Clarify the Project?
3.4.1 Ask Good Questions
3.4.2 Review Other Designs
3.4.3 Visualization
3.4.4 Preliminary Design Iteration
3.5 Closing
3.6 Questions
References
4 Universal Design Activity: Generate Ideas
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Getting Started with Idea Generation
4.3 Intuition
4.4 Seeding Ideas
4.4.1 Seed Ideas from Clarifying the Project
4.4.2 Seed Ideas From Heuristics (Rules of Thumb)
4.4.2.1 Heuristics for Artists
4.4.2.2 Heuristics for Engineers
4.4.3 Seed Ideas From Analogies
4.4.4 Seed Ideas From Randomness
4.5 Design Fixation
4.6 Effectiveness of Idea Generating Methods
4.7 Closing
4.8 Questions
References
5 Universal Design Activity: Select One Idea
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Steps to Selecting One Idea
5.3 Defer Selection to Get More Information
5.4 Elminate Ideas that Are not Useful
5.5 Making the Final Selection
5.5.1 Intuition
5.5.2 Single Criterion Methods (Heuristics)
5.5.2.1 Take the Best
5.5.2.2 Take the First
5.5.2.3 Take the Simplest
5.5.2.4 Risk Versus Reward
5.5.3 Multiple Criteria Methods
5.6 Effectiveness of Selection Methods
5.6.1 Intuition
5.6.2 Single Criterion Methods (Heuristics)
5.6.3 Multiple Criteria Methods
5.6.4 Combinations of Methods
5.7 Closing
5.8 Questions
References
6 Improvisation
6.1 Introduction
6.2 What is Improvisation?
6.3 Types of Improvisation
6.3.1 Artistic Improvisation
6.3.2 Organizational Improvisation
6.4 Closing
6.5 Questions
References
7 What Makes a Good Designer?
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Behaviors of Effective Designers
7.3 Psychology of Effective Designers
7.3.1 Flexibility in Thinking
7.3.1.1 Openness to Experience
7.3.1.2 Curiosity
7.3.1.3 Tolerance of Ambiguity
7.3.2 Control of Attention
7.3.2.1 Conscientiousness
7.3.2.2 Latent Inhibition
7.3.3 Secondary Characteristics
7.3.3.1 Emotional Stability
7.3.3.2 Social Orientation
7.3.3.3 Intelligence
7.3.3.4 Gender
7.4 Impact of Cultural Background
7.5 Closing
7.6 Questions
References
8 Enhancing Our Ability to Design
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Cognitive Enhancement
8.3 Incubation
8.4 Sleep and Dreams
8.4.1 Sleep
8.4.2 Dreams
8.4.3 Hypnagogia
8.5 Focused Imagination
8.6 Meditation
8.7 Hypnosis
8.8 Posture and Exercise
8.9 Food and Drink
8.10 Mind-Altering Substances
8.10.1 Alcohol and Cannabis
8.10.2 Prescription Drugs
8.10.3 Hallucinatory Drugs
8.11 Technology
8.11.1 Neurofeedback
8.11.2 Transcranial Stimulation
8.11.3 Brainwave Entrainment
8.12 Closing
8.13 Questions
References
9 Biases in Design
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Primary Source of Our Biases
9.3 Biases from Heuristics
9.3.1 Creative-Conservative Bias
9.3.2 Familiarity Bias
9.3.3 Confirmation Bias
9.3.4 Simplicity Bias
9.3.5 Balance Bias
9.3.6 Color Perception Bias
9.4 Biases from How We Think
9.5 Biases from How We Feel
9.6 Biases from Value Judgements
9.7 Closing
9.8 Questions
References
10 Designing with Others
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Individual Versus Team Design
10.2.1 Clarifying the Project
10.2.2 Generating Ideas
10.2.3 Selecting One Idea
10.2.4 Other Impacts
10.3 Creating Effective Teams
10.4 Supervising Design Teams
10.5 Closing
10.6 Questions
References
11 Epilogue
Index
