Page 126 - DCAP405_SOFTWARE_ENGINEERING

Unit 8: Design Engineering

possibilities for the medium. Designing is not a process of careful planning and execution, but Notes
rather it is like a dialog, in which the dialog partner—the designed object itself—can generate
unexpected interruptions and contributions. The designer listens to the emerging design, as
well as shapes it.
Design always implies a medium of construction, and new technologies bring with them new
domains for design. Architecture as we know it appeared with the technology for building with
stone. Graphic design emerged with the technologies of printing, and modern product design
flourished with the development of plastics that expanded the possible variety of forms for
everyday products.

Task The computer has produced the field of interaction design, in which new kinds of
virtualities can be created and modified with a velocity that is unprecedented. What do
you understand form this statement?

Design is Creative

It is one thing to lay out a list of criteria for good design. It is quite another thing to do design
well. Designer lacks the comforting restraints of a well-organized engineering discipline, because
designing is inherently messy; it includes, but goes beyond, the ability to be creative in solving
problems. It begins with creativity in finding the problems—envisioning the needs that people
have but do not recognize.

Design is more an art than a science—it is spontaneous, unpredictable, and hard to define. The
skill of the artist–designer is not reducible to a set of methods, and is not learned through the
kind of structured curriculum that serves in science and engineering. On the other hand, it is not
a mysterious gift. There is a long and rich tradition of education in the design fields; it draws on
the interaction between learner and teacher, designer and critic.
Design is Communication

Previous sections have described the interaction between the user and his world, and the
interaction between the designer and her materials. What matters most is the interaction between
these two interactions. A virtuality is neither just what the designer thinks it is, nor what any
particular user thinks it is. It exists in the ongoing dialog between designers and users. To
succeed in designing, we need to understand how designers convey meaning.
At a surface level, designed artifacts communicate content. Skilled designers in every discipline
know how to manage these layers of meaning. In addition, an active artifact—whether it be a
computer program or a coffee maker—communicates to users about its use. A device as
apparently simple as a door communicates to its users through convention. A door with a flat
plate near shoulder level says “Push me!” One with a round knob says “Twist here.” Although
these messages are constrained by the physical mechanisms, they are also a matter of convention
and learning, as every tourist finds out in trying to deal with everyday objects in an unfamiliar
culture.
As is true of any human language, what is visible in a statement is only a small part of the full
picture. A hearer of the sentence “I’m going to kill you!” cannot interpret the intended meaning
without knowing the situational context—was it said to a friend walking onto the tennis court,
in an anonymous note mailed to the President, or by a parent to a child who has just left dirty
clothing on the bathroom floor again? The literal meaning is but the shadow of the meaning in
context.

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