Glossary Terms
Interdisciplinary
Integration of knowledge of methodologies and theories from two or more different disciplines. Each disciplined is a skilled performance that backs up professions and branches of learning.
In other words, interdisciplinary is the sum of two highly focused fields of knowledge joined together into an average.
For example, Design Studies is an interdisciplinary blend of research, art+design, and design thinking.
J. Christopher Jones
by Russell Pinkston
J. Christopher Jones challenged "design methods," questioning the aims, goals, and purposes of designing. He believed that design, as a discipline, should expand from its focus on individual products to the designing of whole systems and environments.
Jones came from an engineering and industrial design background, where he saw that products were being produced which lacked intuitiveness and human connection. He pushed to better integrate ergonomics in these fields, and to define design as a participatory experience that involves the user in the decision-making process.
Jones breaks design down into 3 stages:
Divergence: extending the boundary of a design situation to escape old assumptions and absorb new data
Transformation: a process of brainstorming where variables are defined and patterns emerge to simplify the problem
Convergence: a process of elimination where uncertainties are removed until only one alternative remains
Design Method vs. Design Theory
by Tess Colavecchio
Design Method is a formulation of a rational method of design, originating from the scientific method. This attempt to define design in scientific terms developed strongly in engineering and industrial design fields.
Design Theory is the understanding of strategies, methods, analysis, and research that is design as a creative work. As form and function are intertwined, meaning no design is either one or the other, recognition of pattern and meaning is essential.
For further explanation, the design method is a rational method of designing shows a specific pattern in inventing things that do not yet exist. Design methodology produces a “righter” and “wronger” answer while mathematic and scientific disciplines, most of the time, equate to a “right” or “wrong” answer.
Within design theory there are many components that are included in the understanding of design, and at times it seems overwhelming to arrive at one complete conclusion. Because of its complexity, our human nature is to look for patterns, organize information effectively, or intuitively work through a problem.
Examples of each include:
Design Method
You’re working with “Client A”, and they want you to design a website for their new clothing business. At the same time, “Client B” wants you to redesign a website for their computer software company. The design method would introduce to you a series of steps for the formulation and execution of each client’s website even though what they ask for are very different.
Design Theory
Watson and Crick, the two men who discovered the DNA double helix shape, based their beginning research on utter intuition. There was no one place to start their search, so they began with themselves. Their intuitive thinking that DNA strands were spiral formations, set the ball rolling for further research and, ultimately, a correct conclusion.
Victor Margolin
By Stephan Bryant
Victor Margolin is Professor Emeritus of Design History at the University of Illinois in Chicago. He is the author of many books including: Design Discourse, Discovering Design, The Designed World, and The Politics of the Artificial.
Victor Margolin is an author of many books that focus on design and how it is used and affects the world. He earned a PhD in design history from the Union Graduate school, located in Cincinnati. He then went on to teach art and design at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He taught there from 1982 - 2006. Overall, Margolin is an award winning author and instructor, that has had a big impact on the spreading of knowledge in design history. His books spread the idea of design and also shares the history of design.
Margolin received the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Design Research Society in 2016
Susan Yelavich
By Emily Housel
Susan Yelavich is a writer, researcher, and teacher of Design Studies. Her writing and research has primarily been devoted to the parallels between design and literature, design and culture, and the relationship between textiles and architecture. In Design as Future-Making with Barbara Adams (2014), her latest book, she focused on the effects design has within social justice, health, the environment, and education, making the case that design is inherently social and political.
Yelavich is the director of the Master of Design Studies program at Parsons School of Design in New York City as well as an Associate Professor of Design Studies there. She is the author of numerous articles and books, including Design as Future-Making with Barbara Adams (2014), Contemporary World Interiors (2007), Pentagram/Profile (2004), Inside Design Now (2003), Design for Life (1997), and The Edge of the Millennium: An International Critique of Architecture, Urban Planning, Product and Communication Design (1993). She also wrote the “Swatch” watch article featured in the Design Studies Reader that we analyzed last semester.
