The Design Way: Intentional Change in an Unpredictable World

About this book

Humans did not discover fire--they designed it. Design is not defined by software programs blueprints or font choice. When we create new things--technologies organizations processes systems environments ways of thinking--we engage in design. With this expansive view of design as their premise in The Design Way Harold Nelson and Erik Stolterman make the case for design as its own culture of inquiry and action. They offer not a recipe for design practice or theorizing but a formulation of design cultures fundamental core of ideas. These ideas--which form "the design way"--are applicable to an infinite variety of design domains from such traditional fields as architecture and graphic design to such nontraditional design areas as organizational educational interaction and health care design. Nelson and Stolterman present design culture in terms of foundations (first principles) fundamentals (core concepts) and metaphysics and then discuss these issues from both l