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Cybernetics and Design
Edited by Professor Ranulph Glanville
Introduction
The nature, purpose and process of design are often represented in literature as highly contentious ([5] Carroll, 2003; [10] Dourish, 2001; [20] Margolin, 1995; [27] Rogers, 2004; [29] Suchman, 1987). Once grappled with, the resulting body of knowledge contributes to and impacts various perspectives and practices in a range of design-related disciplines. Because of this, a variety of approaches are demanded of designers and thinkers in this field to equip them to articulate the nuances required to define, describe and contribute to the understanding of design and its practice.
This paper discusses the dynamic nature of the design process. It seeks to better understand the combination of design aspects considered necessary for the ongoing process of actually designing. Subsequently, it addresses how these aspects add to the complexity of design, which impacts on our ability as designers to act effectively in the design process. This paper proposes a cybernetic framework as an approach to better understand the designer's capacity to act as an observer and participant in the creation of a design solution that embraces the social, interactive, functional and interdisciplinary elements of design.
The designer has a role that is integral to the design process and its ultimate solution. Because of this, multiple viewpoints and their implications may be considered via a second-order cybernetics design structure. To facilitate this argument, conversation theory offers a means to reveal and resolve contradictory ideas through a series of interactions. The expanded knowledge that results using this structure assists with the subjectivity of a designer's experience, knowledge, creativity and capacity to act in an iterative design process. Obtaining a reflexive account of user and stakeholder needs will further develop understanding derived from discussion and mutual agreement to reflect a constructivist perspective.
Before an argument can be advanced regarding the benefits of a second-order cybernetics to the design process, it is important that we understand the complexity of the area of design theory and its attendant practices. In this paper, this complexity is dealt with under a series of headings in an attempt to simplify the area. If we accept that the characteristics of design, the act of designing and the nature of design are all complex concepts, then it...