People have always designed things. One of the most basic characteristics of human beings is that they make a wide range of tools and other artefacts to suit their own purposes. As those purposes change, and as people reflect on the currently-available artefacts, so refinements are made to the artefacts, and sometimes
completely new kinds of artefacts are conceived and made. The world is therefore full of tools, utensils, machines, buildings, furniture, clothes, and many other things that human beings apparently need or want in order to make their lives better. Everything around us that is not a simple untouched piece of Nature has been designed by someone.
In traditional craft-based societies the conception or 'designing' of artefacts is not really separate from making them; that is to say, there is usually no prior activity of drawing or modelling before the activity of making the artefact. For example, a potter will make a pot by working directly with the clay, and without first making
any sketches or drawings of the pot. In modern industrial societies, however, the activities of designing and of making artefacts are usually quite separate. The process of making something cannot normally start before the process of designing it is complete.
In some cases- for example, in the electronics industry- the period of designing can take many months, whereas the average period of making each individual artefact might be measured only in hours or minutes.
Perhaps a way towards understanding this modern design activity is to begin at the end; to work backwards from the point where designing is finished and making can start. If making cannot start before designing is finished, then at least it is clear what the design process has to achieve. It has to provide a description of
the artefact that is to be made. In this design description, almost nothing is left to the discretion of those involved in the process of making the artefact; it is specified down to the most detailed dimensions, to the kinds of surface finishes, to the materials, their colours, and so on.
In a sense, perhaps, it does not matter how the designer works, so long as he or she produces that final description of the proposed artefact. When a client asks a designer for 'a design', that is what they want: the description. The focus of all design activities is that end-point.
Engineering Design Methods
Strategies for Product Design
THIRD EDITION
Nigel Cross
The Open University, Mi/ton Keynes, UK
JOHN WILEY & SONS, LTD
Chichester- New York. Weinheim • Brisbane. Singapore. Toronto
