What is Design

Design is conceiving and giving form to artifacts that solve problems.
                           -  K Ulrich

Artifact is used in a very broad sense here to describe any product of intentional creation including physical goods, services, software, business models, etc.

Design ultimately solves a problem.  This is easier for me to understand, as a mechanical Engineer, design entails calculating the forces and selecting the material for a machine or structures.  This is different from the general perception of design as aesthetics.  A good design is a creation that solves the problem effectively.

We can visualize the design process by thinking of a cave man, let’s call him Kumba, who recently discovered the fun of camping and desirous of digging holes for a bamboo tent - the gap, goes off to create a charcoal sketch of what some alternatives might look like - concept generation. Then after settling on an alternative, Kumba goes on to create it.

There was a problem/gap that Kumba was responsive to, then he conceived of some form and produced that form to create an artifact.  This is what design is all about, in other words it is conceiving and giving form to artifacts that solve problems.

Design is part of a human problem-solving activity beginning with a perception of a gap in a user experience, leading to a plan for a new artifact, and resulting in the production of that artifact.   This problem-solving process includes both design and production of the artifact.

There is a distinction between design and production.  Design transfers a gap into a plan, which might be represented with drawings, computer models, or parameter values.  Production than transfers that plan into an artifact.

It is typical for the first effort or version in design not to create a very nice form of the artifact, in other words doesn’t do the job well.

So how do we go from the first effort to a highly refined and very successful product that addresses the gap quite well.

That is what I will be addressing over the coming posts.

My Introduction to Design

Design was not a topic I was familiar with, I knew I wasn’t good at design so I accepted my fate.  But I came to understand that almost all things in life can be learnt especially when you put your heart to it.  The difficult part was first building up the interest.

So what got me interested in design? A lot of things but the turning point was listening to Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson.  Ok, I am a lazy reader so most times if I can get an audio version of a book, especially biographies I get that instead.

Learning about Job’s taste for good design, I too consciously began to get a sense for design; I began to recognize good designs.  Another thing I learnt from Steve Jobs was minimalism.  So uncluttered design became a subject I was interest in.  Truly, “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”.

As with anything I get interested in, I went all out to build my design skills.  The first formal design course I took was with Udacity; "The Design of Everyday Things" by Don Norman. Then like finding gold I stumbled upon Karl Ulrich design course on Coursera; "Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society". This website started as my weekly assignment for the course. After the course I began buying books that would improve my design skills and the things I have learnt are what I hope to share on this platform.  I still search for any course or programme that has the word design in my bid to learn all I can.