ISSD Fall 2009 School of Information, UC Berkeley

Because the specific concepts, methods, and technologies of design differ across contexts, we need to introduce some more abstract ways of thinking about design. In particular, whenever we design something we follow (implicitly or explicitly) some steps or techniques for scoping, analysis, idea generation, and implementation. This design methodology makes assumptions about which design questions can be separately answered, the priorities and dependencies, and who can best answer them. Some design methods prescribe activities in a fixed sequential order, while others are more iterative or recursive. Artifact or work product-centered design methods specify activities, but put more emphasis on the artifacts or work products that result from them than on the way in which they are created. And so on...