Design Instability

Designers deal with an overwhelmingly rich reality, undetermined requirements, highly intricate social situations, lack of information, as well as lack of resource and time restrictions. Every designer is faced and challenged by this complexity.

A central thesis explored in this book is that complexity characteristic for design activities emerges from an inherent *instability of design activities*. We will argue that this instability is a consequence of messy, dynamic, highly interdependent and unpredictable dynamics between design situations, design outcomes, and design resources. Design situations, design outcomes and design resources are complex structures that are not independent of each other. They are also continuously changing, in great part due to forces that are beyond designers' control.

In this book, we describe 11 patterns of design dynamics. The patterns of dynamics illustrate how designers deal with ambiguity, uncertainty, and complexity when they attempt to change the world. As such, these patterns are universal to all design disciplines. Design disciplines may differ in which situations they address, which outcomes they create and which resources they use. But the way how people deal with ambiguity, uncertainty, and complexity is cross-disciplinary. Consequently, we present examples of patterns of dynamics from a very diverse set of design disciplines.

Patterns of Design Dynamics:

Co-evolution of Problem-SolutionPuzzle SolvingSolution Looking for a ProblemPandora's BoxThe Force AwakensYour Design Is Your ReflectionYou Are a Reflection of Your DesignDesign-by-BuzzwordConformityCommitmentCherry Picking