Designing Methods

This afternoon I got a book from the library called 'Designing Methods' by J. Christopher Jones.

Chapter one talks about the role of a designer, some aspects of which are listed below.

Designers must:

• Predict effect
• Specify actions that need to take place
• Formulate proposals in response to brief
  
• Predict behaviour and response at each stage of the 'product' life
• Use examples of existing 'model' behaviour
• Make their process public so as to stimulate political debate and gain public opinion

This is something which is valuable for me at the moment, it creates a framework on which to explore and gauge the quality of ideas. Of course the angle which Jones is coming from is not the same as my own, he is referring to production on a large scale and also talking about utilising public and political opinion, but this information is infinitely transferable, in my case working on a much smaller scale.

Then the second part comes in, this stage was completely lost on me for quite a long time - arrogantly or naively thinking it was was by-passable, only later recognising the value of these systems - diagrams, flow charts, pie charts, graphs for my work.

The diagram below is about considerations which are typically important to the designer.



The blanks are for the designer to decide, they should broadly correlate to the boxes above with user/designer information inside, using markers that are modified and improved throughout the process to quality control the designs. Ideally following this process creates a correct and appropriate result each time.

The next chart enables the designer to narrow the focus. Asking questions, and finding the answers gives the designer the creative edge, knowing the conclusion means you can deviate form the standard route as long as you arrive at the same point.

"This instability of the problem is what makes designing so much more
fascinating than it may appear to someone who has not tried it." pg 10.

"Strong dependencies between distant points in product life history make it difficult to design without much back-tracking and circularity. The role of imagination, the designers trump card, is to enable him to avoid incompatibility between the one stage and another by changing his original aims to others that are more compatible but equally satisfactory in the long or short run." pg 10

"A scientists aim is to describe precisely, and to explain phenomena that exist. His attitude is one of trained scepticism and doubt: his main tools are the experiments that he carefully sets up to disprove hypothesis by searching for truth in statement of the opposite. An Artist, e.g. a painter or a sculptor, is equally uninvolved with the future and is much concerned with the present. His aim is to manipulate, for the satisfaction of so doing, a medium that exists (aaahhh) at the same time as his actions. (There are, of course, artists who use rough drafts, models and musical scores and the like, in which to plan their works, but in such cases as this they are acting with the forethought of designers rather than the impulsiveness of artists.) The attitude of mind that an artist cultivates is that of certainty, and of willingness to act on no or little or no external evidence to support his imagination. He acts in 'real time' using to the full capacity of a skilled nervous system to respond quickly to an intuitively held picture of the real world" pg 10.

And then Jones starts on Mathematicians, saying that their problem is a stable one, unlike the scenarios found in design. Then accordingly the designer does take from the Artist, Scientist and Mathematician to floorlessly engage stimulate and appropriate beautiful ideas into lemon squeezers and chez lounge's.

Below is diagram of my own.

Students as Agents for Change

Today I attended the first meeting for ‘Students as Agents of Change’, the premise is that the students become involved in the decision make process connected to the expansion plans for the university. So before the architects are contacted the student body is allowed to make suggestions about what kind of new facilities will be present in the improved campus.

It was a really interesting meeting, students from many of the courses were present, from both Exeter University and Falmouth University.

One group of students were adamant about the fact that the work going on at the campus should be considerate of animal habitats and also not destroy the allotments that had been provided for their course. People wanted to improve the green areas, making it possible to enjoy the outside more in the summer. Another group wanted to make the campus more inviting, by creating a Sculpture Trail for visitors and locals to enjoy.

Another valuable idea was to set up a series of focus groups to take place within Penryn and Falmouth giving the opportunity for locals to also make suggestions about how the campus expansion could be of benefit locally through new businesses, entertainment facilities like theatre and films and so forth.

Something that I felt stood out for the students was the idea of creating a feeling of ownership within the campus for the students. This would be established by basically turning the university into a gallery space, showcasing art, photography and design and also giving the students the opportunity to use the campus site as a site for experimentation for example through garden design and ecology.

For me this will be a really helpful experience. In my current work I am aiming to discover the specific needs of a community relating to a project. So my personal methodology (discovering needs and creating an outcome) will cause me to either do a good or bad job. I found a great website the other day with a series of crib sheets and toolkits on it, they show how to approach and implement the finds of a consultative process. So hopefully being a part of this committee at college plus + the crib sheets + first hand trial of focus groups = good outcome.

Feelings of Usefullessness

Coming into the second year of this MA, I now have to reconsider my route and the path that I will need to take to achieve this.

Last year I completed two work placements, both of which were very rewarding and helpful in enabling me to see if the choices that I made were viable, the placements have given me insight into the kind of career which I would like to pursue in the future.

My first work placement was to design a bench. using Autocad. I also worked within a landscaping department at the council and this was very enjoyable and insightful.


The bench would have been made from rolled sheet steel, unfortunately thier were drawbacks;

• too expensive to produce
• uncomfortable in the sun

The bench was made from component seats

• did not fulfil the ‘bench’ brief
• the shape of the seat made it hard to create dynamic arrangements

My second work placement, was much different. Making signs for a camp-site. This was oriented towards creating a final product. In this similarly to the other placement, I used computer programmes to achieve the outcome – illustrator, which was challenging, but eventually came to a successful outcome. The camp-site wanted a series of signs for the site, directional and toilet signs – with an arty edge.

They were handmade and original, as well as this they were made from recycled materials, according to the brief. The signs are in use now, and I made a total of 11 signs.

The process of design is different to art and dependant on approach. Design is always user motivated, which means that nothing is sacred in the way that could be considered with art and as well as that items, objects must have a reason or excuse for existing, otherwise they can be deemed useless.