NEW CONCEPTS AND METHODS IN ...

MINISTERUL EDUCAȚIEI NAȚIONALE UNIVERSITATEA DE ARTE „GEORGE ENESCU” IAȘI FACULTATEA DE ARTE VIZUALE ȘI DESIGN Studii universitare de doctorat Domeniul Arte Plastice și Decorative

SUMMARY PhD Thesis

NEW CONCEPTS AND METHODS IN APPROACHING THE SPECIFIC THINKING IN DESIGN From product design to anticipation in design

Scientific coordinator Professor PhD Dan Covătaru

Ph. Dc. Tiberiu Viorel Pop

June 2014

Summary Introduction PART 1 - Design - paradigme analysis CHAPTER I I. Design as a discipline I.1 Methods and skills in design I.2 Design as a form of visual expression I.2.1 Image - perception and multidirectional analysis I.2.2 Image definition I.2.3 Functions and features of image I.2.4 Artistic reading I.2.5 The imagination and the imaginary I.2.6 The contemporary visual communication issue I.3 The designer I.4 CASE STUDY - THE IMAGE, UNITY IN DIVERSITY CHAPTER II II. Design as a process II.1 Design as a procedural - collaborative activity II.1.1 Design as the interaction with others II.2 Creativity in design II.2.1 Conceptual delimitations II.2.2 Theories and study methods II.2.3 Creativity forms II.2.4 Creativity structure and influencial factors II.2.5 The creative process stages II.3 Creative ways to solve problems CHAPTER III III. The creative team III.1 The creator group, the creative group and the progress of the team III.2 Techniques and strategies to improve the effectiveness of teams III.3 Methods to increase the creative potential III.4 CASE STUDY – THE JOY OF FINDING SOMETHING PART TWO - Arguments in favor of changing the paradigm CHAPTER IV IV. Barrister's speech for a specific design thinking IV.1 Systemic thinking

IV.2 Critical thinking in design IV.3 Divergent or sidewise thinking role IV.4 Symbolic thinking - Symbolic knowledge - Concept IV.5 A new philosophy – The design of design thinking - Conceptual design IV.5.1 Attributes and characteristics of design thinking IV.5.2 The purpose of user experience in design thinking CHAPTER V V. Metadesign V.1 Conceptual overview and features V.2 Metadesign's attributes and instruments V.3 The Metadesign team V.4 CASE STUDY - METADESIGNERS AT WORK Conclusions Summary Bibliography

Key words: design, paradigm, thinking, consumer, prosumer, method, discipline, education in design, visual communication, design process, creativity, collaboration, creative team, concept, metadesign This research uses as a starting point a new way of contextualizing a paradigm in design in a conceptual way, considering the social evolution and the defining elements of the XXIst century. I consider that the evolution from an informational era to a conceptual one is a self-assured condition for a new approach in design. The XXIst century will not bring changes only in technology and economic systems, but it will change individuals and their way of thinking. This axiom mainly changes mentalities, mental matrices, and design cannot ignore it. Using information and vision as main ingredients of the raw materials for this study, I opted for an overlap of research strategies – in order to put together the already known fragments without endangering the integrity of phenomena. Thus I have used both sense and experience in an ontology named conceptual objective realism (Bhaskar, 1986) in order to create a synthesis that points out the relationship between designers and the contemporary consumer market. Design now faces customers who gradually transform from consumers to prosumers (producers and consumers at the same time). This process requires a massive shift in design thinking and a new vision. Of course, reinventing design as an area of study demands taking into consideration the multiple ways of representing in social studies. In its most efficient form, design is not a noun but a process, an action, a verb. I have used as a starting point three simple questions that we ask on a daily basis which, depending on the context, raise even more other questions: WHAT? WHY? HOW? They represent three different cases to be solved, not only in a scientific research, but in any design process (approached by a professional designer or as a part of an educational topic discussed in a college). Starting from the idea that the future is being built today, I consider that taking action on the educational process which involves our future designers is highly important. This process must be understood in relationship with the evolution tendencies experienced by our society seen as a whole. The design education system is compelled to be visionary and ensure the transition to new realities with a new set of material and emotional needs. In this context I come with new methodologies and conceptual platforms which still are in an incipient development stage. Still under the strong informational influence of the XXth century, the majority of people are convinced that progress is ensured by an analytical, logical, mathematical or scientific way of thinking, in other words by the human brain’s left hemisphere. But the new socio-economical context claims a balance between mental abilities by using both the right cerebral hemisphere (the creative, intuitive, divergent and metaphoric one) and the left hemisphere. To that effect, an educational process dedicated to designer who will encourage this balance is exceedingly necessary. In this study I have approached design

as a paradigm, as an attempt to create a new self-identity by solving some issues. The researched is structured on two distinct parts. The first part presents an analysis of design seen as a paradigm, of what we know it is how and why it functions. It answers the questions asked above: WHAT? WHY? And HOW? The second part suggests changing the paradigm which has been studied in the first part. As it comes to light from the analysis of design, it finds itself in front of a new challenge, which is the need to redefine and reposition itself. A study on the new pathways that society has adopted in its evolution process reveals new realities that need answers based on new types of approach. But in order to make this possible in the future we need to outline the profile of the future designer as far back as the first day as a student. The research presented in this second part is a challenge for me. I have intended to bring in the foreground of design knowledge area of study elements, methodologies and conceptual platforms that I consider to be essential in the process of strengthening new visions concerning the design educational process.

PART I The paradigm analysis Chapter I analyzes design by concentrating on three directions. I have considered that the best structure for this analysis is: design as an area of study with the designer playing the leading role, methods of design and the visual communication issue in design. Design as an area of study attempts to answer the following question: what is designed and what is not? Design must be understood as a system which connects the aesthetical knowledge with other types of knowledge, such as the scientific, technical, psychological and social types, offering functional artifacts – without underrating the consumer’s function as an active factor who can choose to intervene and who can produce direct effects on the designers’ activity and the design processes. In other words, a designer’s professional development must start from his/her need to discover the market’s characteristics and demands, but also the characteristics and function of the product. Still, knowledge about available materials and technologies is necessary, among with knowledge about the semantic connotations of the product that is to be integrated in a socio-cultural environment. A study on the etymology of the word Design is also important, starting from the Latin word Designare and ending with understanding all of the historical and geographical transformations. This perspective on the beginnings, when design was perceived as a complex endeavor that was trying to optimize the aspect of products helps us to better understand the action. Design, as an area of study, has been outlined by the adaptation to new technologies and production systems that lie behind any object and by the fact that all these factors were supposed to answer to the consumers’ needs at a given moment. All these factors have contributed to the apparition of the research area in design and of design as a profession. These two subjects are also being approached in this chapter. The link between the consumer and the designer is essential and fascinating at the same time. It creates a convergence between two different worlds belonging to different systems. An important aspect in this relationship is context. If we talk about contextualizing the design activity we must also accept that it implies the existence of a space in which people interact. This space’s function is determined, as design focuses its attention on the connection between people and other people, between people and objects or between people and nature. As I see space as a linking element between people and the designed object, I have also approached the idea of an interaction between design and architecture. Joining these two areas of study, there is a collection of obvious structural and morphologic structures. This connection is even more remarkable when they coalesce or even overlap. A designer’s professional development is, in general, very complex and assorted, be it in the academic educational system or with the help of on-line courses. It differs from a culture to another, from a geographic space to another. Speaking about qualification, some

pay more attention to graphic abilities (drawing), while others pay more attention to technical abilities or to abilities related to mass-media. For others the main priorities are conceptual, strategic skills and the abilities concerning integration. But regardless of the preference, design through collaboration (co-design) ensures a bond to the important development tendencies of the contemporary design. I consider that the multidisciplinary side of a designer must be assisted by a constant process of collecting information. I believe that every book about design should be accompanied by four or five books related to other areas of study (literature, arts, science, etc.). Subchapter I.1 is dedicated to methods used during any design process. The analysis starts from the abilities needed to successfully practice design. A designer must be capable to analytically process the required tasks in design, to be up-to-date with the opportunities offered by the new technologies or with the properties of new materials. At the same time, he/her must be a visionary, he/her must be able to play the artist’s role but at the same time he must possess knowledge about marketing, sociology and psychology as well as knowledge related to production processes. If the evaluation of a scientific activity is based on concepts such as availability and reliability, the designer’s work is assessed based on his ingenuity. By using this attribute, a designer has the capability to improvise on new methods adapted to the features of his project. He does not need to produce precise replicas of reality, but he can manifest his openness to experimenting or even using methods that are not accepted by other areas of study. On another hand, technology has made possible the occurrence of electronic commerce, which changes the relation between consumer and product paradigm; this relationship allowed new types of equipment to be invented (for example, the 3D printer), which provides consumers with the opportunity to become producers. In this context I have brought into discussion the term prosumer (producer and consumer at the same time), as a contemporary reality. The business branch sees in the prosumer the relation between the professional and the consumer as a more independent relation than mass economy. Subchapter I.2 has been entirely dedicated to the visual communication issue, as an instrument in design. Even if we talk about beauty in design (an older concept) or aesthetics in design (a newer concept), the “design world” is more oriented towards the appearance of objects than towards their functionality. A fundamental truth would be that design ensures the equilibrium between aesthetics and functionality. In order to deepen the aesthetical phenomenon I have studied the morphology of visual arts as I consider it effective in understanding design as a form of visual arts. In fact, design finds itself at the unapparent borderline between arts and science, between the aesthetical and the functional parts. I have started from the idea that the design process lies on principles and elements that not differ from those which apply to fine arts (the point, line, shape, surface, volume). The analysis has revealed the presence of an element specific to

design, “the visual clue” – affordance1 (the property of an object or background which allows an individual to perform an action by giving a visual clue about its function). Identifying the relationship between visual communication and design process continues with a journey to the image world – as image rule our entire existence and contribute to the process of adorning the every-day life. Imagination and the imaginary also play an important role in the typology of images as they are analyzed in order to help the balance between ways of thinking. Defining the image (subchapter I.2.2) is however a stiff process. Unconsciously, we use images on a daily basis, we live with them, and we depend on them. In order to understand them, we have to study a short historic, from imago, simulacrum, iconicity, etc., to the modern categories of olfactory, acoustic, mental and verbal images. Presenting and representing the image, as described in the subchapter I.2.3, are part of the image’s functions which are broadly discussed in the specialized literature. Concisely, the presentation corresponds to the denotative function, while representation corresponds to the connotative function. One role that images have is to communicate, implying interpretation and the work with symbols, while a controversial function of them is to manipulate and persuade, especially in advertising business. It is well known that the most powerful forms of persuasion use images because verbal communication is not as efficient as the visual communication. Evaluating an image as an aesthetical object can also be considered to be a starting point for a pragmatic understanding of the reality. The analysis reiterates the role of art’s fundamental tool, the metaphor, which is based on analogy. Hence the image is not only a mean of artistic expressions, but it implies a point of view. Image is looked at as a communication channel as it creates an authentic language. Among with the image, the word, and later the image-word, is made up by the basic instruments of visual communication. Graphic design uses a big palette of relations between the two, offering common features in a dynamic era. In fine arts, a constant issue that artist such as Marcel Duchamp, Kurt Schwitters, Rene Magritte and Juan Miro have to deal with is using the term “image-word” by inserting words, letters and numbers in their work. There is more to discuss about the letter as we hold it in our hands, successfully using in graphic design, but fonts are also powerful instruments in visual communication. In the design education process I consider analogy to be very useful among with encouraging the use of a designer’s own set of knowledge. An example that emphasizes this fact consists in some visual exercises especially created for students (Fig. 2, 3, 4 and 5, page 50-51). As an additional recommendation, intuition, fantasy and expressivity are key-elements that must exist in any creative process. Considering a facile access to image, it depreciates while the emotional side is diminished or even completely disappears. But the integration of 1

The psychologist James J. Gibson has suggested the term in 1977, The Theory of Affordances. In Perceiving, Acting, and Knowing, Eds. Robert Shaw and John Bransford

computers in fine arts’ area of study does not represent a danger to traditional creators. I consider that the use of plastic lecture (subchapter I.2.4) must remain a common practice since it is a trustful guide and contributes to translation of the plastic message and to the process of extracting the creative emotions. It is essential for us to know how to see in a plastic sign the synthesis between expression and content. Furthermore, the connection between the signified, the signifier and the visual message reminds as of the usefulness that visual semiotics has in a creative act. This interaction that continues between signified and signifier underlies any artistic representation – even if it is about literature, fine arts, architecture or a confluence between artistic and technical – in this case it refers to design. Subchapter I.2.5 analyzes the relationship between image, imagination and imaginary which is necessary to any act of cultural analysis. Hence we can start from the multiple categories of images that are used in communicating information about any cultural sign or symbolic buildings and the modernism manifestations. This subchapter reminds the most important ideas and philosophical thoughts that refer to the build of both physical and mental images. This part of the study is important since designers and artists work with the “mind’s eye”, using visual memory and imaginative thoughts. I have studied theories about images from the following authors: Kant, Dufrenne, Bachelard, Coleridge, Deleuze, Appadurai, Durand, etc. The last subchapter – I.2.6 – of this debate about image is an overview of image today. The contemporary visual communications issue is strongly connected to the rapid and continuous development of the digital technologies but also to a slight change in the perception of time and space. The eventuality that everything might happen at the same time but in different places and ways is a real challenge for visual communicators. A series of problems related to excessive informatization and information exchange speed need to be solved. The most pregnant problems of the contemporary communication are isolation and the informational overload. The question that needs to be asked is: will these technologies change perception and generate new types of visual cultures? Intelligent design is an adaptive design of simple visual approach, capable of communicating the messages essence. Therefore a new question asks what is art and what is not in the visually complex world that we created. If separate areas of study such as photography, illustration and design are inserted in commercial art, graphic design would be a little bit of everything. This syncretism makes this branch of visual communication to find the best solutions of communicating the information, adding complex messages in an easy to interpret graphic shape. Chapter I.3 is entirely dedicated to the designer, an individual who possesses a multidisciplinary system as he is a generalist with a synthetic and intuitive way of thinking. The designer’s objective is often seen as a specific activity, determined by the socioeconomical climate in which he has to find the reliable niche. As a commercial artist, he aims to be more than a simple stylist, being that he wishes to culturally contribute through objectivity and honesty. The designer is somebody who owns a mind constantly oriented to

precise goals, with a work and time planning oriented towards profit, which is open to new concepts, sometimes even preposterous. In order to perform in this activity the relation between creativity, passion and vision must be fully fulfilled. Design is a colaborative activity; therefore designers need a set of complex abilities. I have outlined a portrait of the designer, taking into consideration personal development as a working team member. Selfawareness2 is especially important, among with curiosity, respect and receptivity. Designers have to act through introspection; they must possess the ability to link and balance their own aspirations, tastes, sensibilities, capabilities and problems with the consumers’ needs. Only this way a designer raises his creative potential in a much wider context. Another analyzable subject is handling curiosity – a sense that must always be awake in order to increase the participant potential, resulting in a better social, technologic and ecologic engagement. Other qualities that would help a designer in his work are empathy, communication abilities, scepticism and increased sense of responsibility. Chapter I.4 presents a case study performed along with the Design Department’s students from the Visual Arts College in Iasi. The three topics had the theme: UNITY IN DIVERSITY. All topics – Modular Composition, Designer’s Library and Second Year’s Magazine – have aimed a creative handling of some images. A team made up of 35 students has been working as a whole, but at the same time the members were not neglecting their own individuality and personal style. The main purpose, beyond the technical achievement, has been collaboration, opinions exchange, giving up vanity and especially mutual stimulation. The finite products – a modular image, a library consisting of 35 books with unique styles and a professional presentation of the team in the shape of a magazine – have been a success, proving the fact that students understood the complexity and the issues they had to overcome during the design process, as more than one designer has been involved in the process of crafting a tiny product. The issues are analyzed in Chapter III, which tackles the creative team. The most important benefit of an experiment like this is personal development and professional ascension, which are the most essential conditions in this type of work. Preparing for a job, talent and work are not enough if they are not assisted by social practice. Chapter II of this research analyzes the design process, more exactly the way a designer works. The first subchapter – II.1 – describes design as a procedural - collaborative activity, namely the interaction between actors and their background. Any approach of a design process is an independent entity, in its own environment, with its own level of complexity and dynamic tasks that must be correlated, brought to harmony. Mainly the basic form of a defining process of design activities could be simplified in the shape of a bidimensional triangle built from the constant (circular) movement of information and the interaction between research steps, study and practice. The tasks that a designer has to go through and that lie under the sign of interdisciplinarity are also clearly defined. The first task 2

Wicklund, Robert, A theory of objective self-awareness. Duval, Shelley; Wicklund, Robert A.,Oxford, England: Academic Press. (1972)

demands creating new products. Another task is to communicate the solutions to problems by using relevant blueprints assisted by arguments. Another task, which cannot be carried out by the designer alone is to clarify technological issues. Here, communication with an engineer and/or people specialized in making the product is absolutely necessary. This is a synthesis of any design endeavour that should constantly be reminded during the educational process: Think – Make a mistake – Ask – Understand – Change – Learn3. Basically, the steps in any design process, as they are traditionally structured, are fairly clear: Identification and Research, Searching for an Idea, Defining the solution, implementing a solution, The Product. Of course, all these steps require inspiration, innovation and ideation. An interesting idea – which is, in fact, the backbone of this debate – belongs to the researcher Gerhard Fischer. In order to bring important perspectives in a design process, every interested part in the process must be designers and co-developers, not only consumers. The analysis of the traditional process is even more important if we understand that changing the paradigm happens exclusively on this sphere. This change is closely examined in the second part of this research. Subchapter II.1.1 attempts to define the design process in terms of interaction with others. The sine qua non condition for any interaction to happen is communication. This is the binding agent between team members, communities, nations and cultures. The design process regularly has a strong connection with the activity of groups or teams. People, through their psychological nature, plenarily manifest themselves; their actions are based on a collection of collective processes which affect individuals. The analysis has taken into consideration two distinct elements: the presence of a passive spectator and the presence of other individuals involved in the same activity. The human activity underlies our needs, which is why I have considered as necessary a thorough rating from research on them, starting from the well-known Maslow’s hyerarchy of needs and ending with more complex theories: the Herzberg’s Theory of the two factors and the Ştefan Vlăduţescu’s Communication contract. In subchapter II.2 I have approached the problem of creativity in design. Elevated curiosity and satisfying it by exploring the reality is one of the basic characteristics of design. All these, starting from the premise that there has always been existing more than just one answer to a problem. But this type of approach also implies dangers, such as routine. The creative capacities could be easily limited or destroyed by a way of thinking based on rigid models – which have been successful once – and on habits which lead the thinking processes to the same trajectories. Along with curiosity, a special role in a designer’s behavior is played by the readiness to explore through playing. It is a method that helps the creative mind and diminishes the effects of stress factors. The definition of the design activity underlines the fact that this activity is fundamentally creative, even though its product is destined to be industrially 3

Edward B. Burger & Michael Starbird, The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking, Princeton University Press, 2012

reproduced. But in order to understand the creative process I have compared it with the growth phases of a tree from a seed to the adult specimen by using an overview. The creativity tree, starting from its base and climbing up to the top, will consist of: inaction, intuition, imitation, inspiration and imagination. But creativity has to confront with multiple obstacles, and many of them are inevitable. Fear of failure is one of these obstacles, along with involuntary design, which just happens and ends in a result generated or corrupted by technological functionalities. In the conceptual delimitations in subchapter II.2.1 I discuss the terms which cooperate to define the picture of creativity: intelligence, genius, intuition, passion, thinking, etc. I have underlined the term thinking as it is the background for any subsequent research on design education. Subchapter II.2.2 acts as a bigger image of creativity study theories and methods: the association theory, the gestalt theory and the transfer theory. I have insisted on heuristics, as a creative way of instruction, and on the scientific hypothesis (instrument of access to new sets of knowledge). The shapes of creativity have been discussed about in the subchapter II.2.3. The most important shapes that creativity can take are: of products, of processes, of creative ability and of a complex dimension of a personality (M. Zlate, 1994)4. Starting from these four shapes of creativity there has been imposed a parallel analysis between scientific creativity and artistic creativity. Design lies between the two. The structure of creativity and of its influential factors is discussed about in subchapter II.2.4 and contains a series of characteristic elements grouped in categories and internal factors that condition the creative process. From the multiple steps of the creative process (subchapter II.2.5) I have analyzed the steps crated by G. Wallas, Al. Osborn and E. de Bono, which I consider to be closer to the reality of a design process’ act. Another approach of the artistic creativity’s differentiation from the technical or scientific creativity is Ken Stange’s5, an Arts Psychology teacher at the Nipssing University in Canada. He starts from the different ways of approaching the same steps of a creative process. The creative methods of solving problems can be found in chapter II.3, in which I have identified three types of problems: well defined, badly defined and insufficiently defined. There are multiple options in solving these problems: associations, the technique of reversed hypothesis, the method of listing the attributes, the specific way of expressing (pattern), the method of creatively solving a problem ( CPS – creative problem solving), etc. Chapter III is entirely dedicated to the creative team, which is the decisive factor of any design activity. As an introduction, I have defined the notions of group and team and the

4 5

Zlate, Mielu., Psychology’s fundaments, 3rd part, Hyperion, XXI, Bucharest, 1994. Stange, Ken, Artist and Scientist: Recognizing and Resolving their Differences, http://bit.ly/UrSzPB, pp.3-5

difference between them. A group can be seen as a team only if its members help each other in order to accomplish their common goals. A team can also be considered a small group. In the subchapter III.1, I have analyzed the differences between the creator group, the creative group and the evolution stages of a team. Hereby, building a team is not an arbitrary action; it must take into account its characteristics, the norms and the roles that contribute to the team’s cohesion and its activity. Positive thinking is an essential factor in this endeavor. Within the design process, and especially within the team, defining the coordination points is essential not only for team members, but also for the designed product and its life expectancy. The team leader plays an important role, as success depends on his attitude as well as on his techniques used to increase the productivity of a team. In this subchapter I have also analyzed the differences between small teams and bigger teams, their strong points and their weak points. In order to increase work efficiency in a team, different methods and techniques have been tested and proved to be effective. (Subchapter III.2 – Techniques and strategies to improve teams’ efficiency). In the specialized literature there have been inventoried more than 50 methods capable of stimulating creativity. These methods have been theoretically grouped in intuitive methods and analytic methods, although practice requires methods that combine two or more techniques. Study reveals the existence of some drawbacks in the way of creativity. This data is called blockage and there are more types: social, methodological, creative, etc. The methods that increase the creative potential (subchapter III.3) are directly proportional with the team leader’s trust in his coworkers. The following are a few utilized techniques: brainstorming (Osborn), the synthetic method (Gordon), the Scamper technique – solving problems in a creative way, the method of the six thinking hats (E. de Bono), the Panel discussion, the Frisco method, etc. The last subchapter of this part is subchapter III.4 and it’s a case study named the joy of finding something. As in the first case study of this research, it is a practical application completed among with the students and it implies using Eduard de Bono’s method of the six thinking hats. I consider this experiment a success, as the students gave a positive feedback – as a creative accomplishment. The results have determined me to repeat the experiment with other groups, which have finally confirmed this method’s potential. The conclusions of this first part are only a beginning of the problems that are to come during the development of new techniques of design process’ approach and the designing concept’s approach, both of which take into consideration the designer’s contribution, as well as the consumer’s contribution. The four elements: the design, the design, the design process and creativity in design have always been and still are perceived as a “To do list”. We persistently try to demonstrate that the relationship between these four elements can be treated as a unitary concept that can and must be understood by the young designers during their studies.

PART 2 Arguments in favor of changing the paradigm Starting from the idea that design is a way of thinking, not a set of knowledge, I suggest the implementation of a Romanian design educational system, of a conceptual platform (metadesign) with its own methodologies. Internationally speaking, there are universities which put this platform into practice (for example Politecnico di Milano), as well as people who have specialized on systematizing the metadesign process, such as G. Fisher6, E. Giaccardi7 and Vassão8. The speak about an emergent culture of design that has erupted from the environment which it belongs from and exposes its qualities unpredictably and spontaneously. The essence consists in emphasizing the relationship between the designed environment and the every-day reality. Due to the analysis concerning the first part of the research we can consider design as a synthetic area of study in which the creative process is bound to scientific, technical, cultural elements and experiences resulted from a tactical knowledge about the reality. The designer suggests new mental models that outline the way our world is perceived by encouraging things and actions with loads of sense. In order to tangle the axiom which tells us that design in a way of thinking it is necessary that we formally analyze it and the methods through which a designer’s thought perceives the objective reality. Approaching the design of thinking is the main role of a designer in society, which is to find solutions to real problems, not to problems that are assumed to be real. Heuristics9 might lie on the background of the design educational system. Every scientific approach of design must start from its “system principle” because of the complexity and synthetic characteristics of the process (subchapter IV.1 – Systematical thinking). The systematical thinking represents an extension and a new way of understanding the relationship between cause and effect. Starting from the interdependence between cause and effect axiom, we have to see HOW things are related; science will find the rules and laws that govern them. If we answer to the questions How? And Why? We can go to the prediction stage. Subchapter IV.2 suggests a study of critical thinking in design. The term “to criticize” is generally perceived as a constructive factor. This perception is helped by the dictionaries 6

Gerhard Fischer is an Informatics teacher, a member of the Cognitive Sciences Institute and the founder and director of the Center of LifeLong Learning and Design (L3D) from the Colorado University, Boulder 7 Elissa Giaccardi, Associate Professor Departamento de Informáticaand Instituto de Cultura y Tecnología Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Spain, former director of New Media Development &Research department, la Fondazione Fitzcarraldo, Torino 8 Caio Adorno Vassão, Brazilian architect, teacher at the Fine Arts College, FAPP, Sao Paolo 9 “Mental shortcuts” for the study methods based on the discovery of new facts and which can or cannot lead to efficient solutions (Fischoff, 1999; Hoyoak, 1990; Korf, 1999; Sternberg, 2000)

themselves. The critical thinking consists in the mental process of analysis and evaluation of information and does not aim to attack other individuals, but their ideas through the prism of some intellectual dialogue’s rules. The designer is helped by a type of argumentation throughout analogy, by working with the affinities between two situations, objects, functions, phenomena, notions, etc., which are part of the formal models. The designer will work on these models either by using his critical thinking, his logical thinking or both (this would be the ideal situation). The design process implies the usage of a critical thinking in the shape of analysis as a part of the specific thinking, in other words, the design thinking (Herbert Simon; Tim Brown). The aim of lateral or divergent thinking has been analyzed in subchapter IV.3 through a comparison with the convergent thinking. Convergent thinking is the logical thinking, which is selective, continuous. Lateral or divergent thinking only tries to generate different approaches by using intuition and has as a purpose the change. Therefore, if in the case of the logical thinking information is the vector that guides us towards a solution, in the case of lateral thinking information is used as a provocative element that determines the models’ reorganization. Another type of thinking is analyzed in subchapter IV.4 – symbolic thinking. Designers often see the symbol as an element that lies on the background of a representation system that is universally understood. Many designers have wished to develop universally understandable symbols that do not depend on a single community. Symbol systems need to be familiar with certain visual conventions in order to be understood. Subchapter IV.5 develops a new philosophy, the design of design thinking – the conceptual design. The main pillar of this new approach in design – here we refer to the entire palette of human experiences that need design – is DESIGN FOCUSED ON PEOPLE. The main characteristics of this concept are logical elements which should be included in the educational design process. Here are some of them: it is an innovative process of thinking; it is a team approach; it accepts failure; it is a way of influencing the change. Other aspects that must be taken into consideration are emotional satisfaction and the wellbeing state of the user. Essentially, thinking about design is a methodology of solving problems based on common human abilities, which are often ignored (for example empathy). Thinking on design does not have to remain the privilege of designers; it should migrate upwards to the decisional factors. By schematically reducing the design process it lies on three levels of approach: Thought – Creation – Analysis. In an initial approach, the level of specific thinking is created by understanding the context, observing and refining the information gained and formulating an asserted point of view. From this point we cross to a new conceptual platform, the metadesign platform (which is discussed in chapter V). In chapter IV.5.1 we continue the analysis on attributes and characteristics of the design thinking. They have been best synthesized by Baeck & Gremett (2011) and Gerd Waloszek. The aim of the user’s experience is a subject that should not be neglected; it is

discussed about in subchapter IV.5.2. By carefully looking on the evolution of marketing we can notice the arrival of new approaches which tend to focus more on the consumer. The marketing services used to operate with homogeneous groups, generically named consumers, but new types of needs transform the consumer in a part of the process which creates values. Today we certainly find ourselves in a conceptual century in which conceptual economy is described by the creativity contribution, the innovation and design abilities that ensure the economic competitiveness. Subchapter IV.5.3 analyses the design thought in this conceptual era. I consider that the arguments that stay in favor of an equilibrium in using the mental abilities – the logical thinking and the creative thinking – are powerful enough to create a structure in favor of the specific design thinking, a conceptual thinking. Daniel Pink has identified six abilities necessary to be developed in the conceptual era as they are crucial in the process of adaptation of any designer in the new context. They are: Design – not only function; Narration – not only argument; Symphony – not only focusing; Empathy – not only logic; Play – not only seriousness; Signification – not only accumulation; The last chapter of this research – Chapter V, Metadesign – presents a description of this concept. As I said before, this concept is already being applied in the educational system in universities around the world (Italy, Spain, Brazil, and Canada). A good counterpoint in trying to define metadesign might be approaching it as an “anticipation science in design”. We start from the premise that the force of impact of designers on society, on a decisional level, is not big, and applying concepts with precise finishes that help society is proven to be quite difficult. But the reality finds itself in a continuous change, and advancing from information to concept implies new paradigm changes. The adepts of the new conceptual platform claim that, in the traditional design process, the ascendant solution reflected by the designer or by a creative team cannot solve complex systems’ problems. Metadesign incorporates ideas expressed by design thinkers, such as Victor Papanek and Buckminster Fuller, who teach people – through the Open Source methods – how to heal nature and increase its productivity based on the limitations of each ecosystem. Eco-design, through the prism of this approach, is part of metadesign. The analysis continues with information regarding the arrival and evolution of the concept and its etymology. Subchapter V.1 presents the conceptual characteristics. As a methodology, its purpose is to fuel the organization of teams with possibilities and development perspectives. Designers’ activity should be oriented towards our entire daily experience, not only on individual products. The contribution of designers in the refining process of the relationship between product and consumer is bounded no more by creating consumer products, but by foreknowledge. Shortly, it implies a jump from planning (how should things be) to humanistic action (how things could be). Basically, metadesign is the sum of all creative forces that work together to satisfy our common needs, based on the most important element – the group’s creative consciousness.

The attributes and instruments of metadesign are presented in subchapter V.2. Starting from the premise that one designer cannot fulfill all of the requirements of a highly complex task, as his expertise is not sufficient, the idea of creating a team is formed. The keyword in metadesign is synergy. In other words, metadesign is the synergy of the creative synergies. Choosing the tetrahedron as a geometric form that represents metadesign is not accidental. Number four, represented by the tetrahedron’s corners, is considered to be the optimal number of levels that can be managed. Subchapter V.3 analyses the build of the metadesign team. A metadesign team is a flexible collaborative form which determines its own action norms and has its own vision and purpose. But, naturally, difficulties may occur. Maybe one of the many challenges and problems that designers face is that they are traditionally “programmed” to function only when they deal with aspects of their own specialization, forgetting the fact that these aspects are part of a bigger system. The way different areas of study respond to metadesign’s challenge has been studied by Jordan Dalladay-Simpson. Subchapter V.4 presents a case study on metadesign called WORKING METADESIGNERS. I have started from the two types of approach of a designer: the practical model – through which we analyze the design process and the theoretical model – which represents the way we think about it. The main idea that I use in the educational act implies Design thinking which needs teamwork, regardless of the drawbacks of this type of approach. The human resource has increased in the case of implying it in a process that participates to the creative act (co-design). I have created two teams of four students, respectively three students. The design topic that the study groups have received was a common transport vehicle designing, based on the slogan “Faster, cheaper, no pollution”. The working steps have been followed through applying the principles of metadesign: informing, individual documentation, creating teams, and brainstorming, individual projects. By comparing the researches and final projects of the two teams, I have analyzed the method of understanding and implementing the metadesign model. From the two teams of students, the three member’s team has better managed to create the unity in diversity, but the students haven’t managed to effectively get combative with each other. The other team has been more enthusiastic, but they did not entirely respect the principles they had to follow. We hope for the future to add in this research an aspect which may not seem very important: changing team members as often as possible, in order to refresh the ideas and to educate students about communication.

CONCLUSIONS Arguments in favor of improving the design educational system This research has been developed in the conditions of a reality that claims a redesigning of design and its specific activities. Changing the paradigm is a necessary step, as we assist today to a clash of values, techniques, and geo-political problems and, more important, a metamorphosis of lifestyles and communication methods. The entire research has been based on identifying, analyzing and introducing new approaches and conceptual platforms in order to implement a new vision of future designers. Even though there are a lot of advantages in traditional design, it must be redesigned, given the fact that innovation and creativity are no more a caprice, but more of a survival strategy. The analysis on the creative team has pointed out, once again, that a synergy of creative forces is more efficient than individual work. Identifying the apparition of a (new) type of consumer, the prosumer, as an essential element in the approach of the market that the designer chooses is now an argument in favor of changing the paradigm. Thinking about words that will help the consumer become a prosumer implies shifting from the traditional design methods to the modern ones. I also consider highly important that the design educational system adopts this concept as a contemporary reality. To sum up – the conceptual thinking, focusing on human needs and team work – the apparition of a conceptual platform, even of a science of anticipation in design, is a natural one. Metadesign is to be this platform, with ramifications in the entire human sphere. As for the case study applications, their results have been analyzed with the students involved in order to develop that educational conceptual platform. The conclusions have proved the necessity of creating new themes in order to prepare students better. The final products have been a success, proving the fact that students understood the complexity and the problems that occur during any design process, when multiple designers are involved in creating a small object. The most important gain of these experiments is personal development, a crucial element in this area of study. Preparing for a career, the talent and work are not enough without this social practice.

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