viernes, 2 de mayo de 2014

Decision Making in Design

The following text is a summary of the course 'Methods and Techniques for Design', part of the SAI program 'Process and Product Design' of TU/e, taught by Dr. Kees van Overveld in April 2014.

The motivator of Research is the curiosity for valid knowledge about a determined subject, in which a single, unique and reproducible answer is attained. The progress of research is based on observation.
Design however arises from the need of value, from the absence of something in order to produce a certain solution from a multiple variety of them. The progress of design is due to a process of decision making that will determine the characteristics and properties of the artefact to be designed. The following figure shows the evolution of the knowledge of AtbD and the impact of the decisions with respect to time:


As can be deduced from this figure, the most important decisions are based on the least knowledge available. Because of this, it is clear that a systematic approach to decision making would prove a very useful and time-saving tool in order to achieve a successful design. With this purpose we will take a closer look on the anatomy of decision making and the definition of design (understood from an engineering viewpoint).

Anatomy of Decision Making



A first stage called Divergence (I), which consists of the generation of plausible ideas for the design, is followed by a stage of Convergence (II), where with a critical sense the weakest ideas are disregarded. When multiple probable solutions still remain at the end of this stage, a selection based on intuition is made. The first two stages give answer to what is going to be designed. In the next stage (III), the Detailing of the optimal idea for design is considered. This stage consists again of multiple phases of divergence and convergence to define how is the artefact brought to existence.
In his study of mental attitudes, Edward de Bono presented the theory of six thinking hats or mental habits (each assigned to a colour) which are alternatively desirable as shown in the figure above during each stage of decision making:



       Design is the making of decisions such that Value for stakeholders increases

When making a design of a concept, the values of certain properties of this concept have to be assigned in order to maximize the desired properties associated to the Value (worth) of that concept. That is, if we say that the properties  whose values are chosen directly by the designer belong to a category I, and we group properties which help prioritize one concept over another (in regards to the Value they provide) in category II, we can synthesize the definition of design to a mathematical functionality between properties:


However, there are properties which the designer must assume are given to him and has no freedom to manipulate, these fall into category III. Moreover, there are properties which are not directly fixed by the designer, nor given by assumptions, nor determine the Value of the concept, but interrelate properties from one category to another in order to establish the dependency (category IV). The following figure illustrates these ideas:

Lastly, when the model of design is built, particularly when more than one category II properties exist, it might be difficult to decide on the optimal solution (assignment of values to category I properties). Algorithmic optimization proves in many cases unrealistic, therefore a Pareto graph is plotted to select the dominant solution which provides the most Value. This representation is repeated iteratively in order to move the Pareto front to better values and consequently reach better designs.


for more information on the subjecthttp://www.keesvanoverveld.com/

Carlos Arnaiz.

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