Design Judgement: Decision-Making in the ‘Real’ World

Abstract

Design is about creating the ‘real’ world around us. Real life is complex, dynamic and uncertain. Truth is difficult enough to know, even with the best science, but ‘reality’, the domain of human experience, can be overwhelmingly paralysing and beyond comprehension or understanding. Careful, accurate description, concomitant with clear explanation, is necessary but not sufficient in the quest for enough understanding to allow wise decisions to be made. The value of judgement is that it allows individuals to overcome their paralysis and engage with the messy complexity of life in a way that, when done well, can bring function, beauty, and meaning to human existence. In this paper we will examine judgement, particularly design judgement. We argue that a better understanding of judgement is needed if we want to improve our design ability in an intentional manner. Judgement is a key dimension in the process of design. The ability to make design judgements is what distinguishes a designer as a designer. The ability to make good design judgements distinguishes good design.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Harold G. Nelson

BIOGRAPHY

Dr Harold G. Nelson is the President and Co-founding Director of the Advanced Design Institute. Dr Nelson works as a consultant to corporations, governmental agencies, international organizations and educational institutions in the area of Organizational Design Competence. He is an Affiliated Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and an Extended Faculty in the Information School at the University of Washington. He is Past-President of the International Society for Systems Science. For over 12 years Dr Nelson was the head of the graduate programs in social and organizational systems design at Antioch University. He received his PhD in the Design of Social Systems from the University of California at Berkeley. He is a registered architect in the State of California.

Erik Stolterman

Professor Erik Stolterman is at the Department of Informatics, Umeå University, Sweden. In 1991, he received his PhD in Informatics at the same university. His main work is within information technology and society, information systems design, philosophy of design, and philosophy of technology. Stolterman is also one of the founders of The Advanced Design Institute. Apart from the academic scholarly work, Stolterman is engaged in consulting, seminars, and workshops with organizations and companies.