Design Science - Science of Design

Science of Design

The first edition of Simon's The Sciences of the Artificial, published in 1969 (third edition available as: Simon 1996), built on previous developments and motivated the development of systematic and formalized design methodologies relevant to many design disciplines, for example architecture, engineering, urban planning, medicine, computer science, and management studies (e.g. Baldwin and Clark 2000; Banathy 1996; Cross 1984; Long and Dowell 1989; Romme 2003; Van Aken 2004; Warfield 1990). Simon's ideas about the science of design also motivated the development of the scientific study of designing (Gero 2008). In his book Simon also used the idea of a theory of design alluding to design science as a science of design. For example, the axiomatic theory of design described in (Suh, 1990) presents a domain independent theory that can explain or prescribe the design process. Developing from the idea of a 'design science' there has been recurrent concern to differentiate design from science (Gregory, 1966; Cross, Naughton, and Walker, 1981; Willem, 1990). Cross (2001) differentiated between scientific design, design science and a science of design. The scientific study of design does not require or assume that the acts of designing are themselves scientific and an increasing number of research programs take this view (Gero 2004). Cross (2006) uses the term 'designerly' to distinguish designing from other kinds of human activity.