What is Design?

Every single thing that mankind ever built or created, be it intellectual or physical, was designed.   Design is inherent to ‘making things,’ which is industry.  But what is design?  Design is the intersection of form, function/purpose, and aesthetics.  All designs have some mix of these three.  A piece of artwork leans heavily toward aesthetics, while a building leans heavily toward function/purpose.  Both of these examples, and all designs, have form because they are ‘things made.’

Sometimes the simplest designs are the most profound.  Is that a function of design?  …to reduce complexity?  Designs are a compilation of options of form, function/purpose, and aesthetics.  Anything made could be comprised of many different options.  The design is simply the choices made among these options.

TRIZ methodology lists 39 engineering parameters:

• Weight of moving object
• Weight of nonmoving object
• Length of moving object
• Length of nonmoving object 
•  Area of moving object
• Area of nonmoving object
• Volume of moving object
• Volume of nonmoving object
• Speed 
• Force
• Tension, pressure
• Shape
• Stability of object
• Strength
• Durability of moving object
• Durability of nonmoving object
• Temperature
• Brightness
• Energy spent by moving object
• Energy spent by nonmoving object
• Power
• Waste of energy
• Waste of substance
• Loss of information
• Waste of time
• Amount of substance
• Reliability
• Accuracy of measurement
• Accuracy of manufacturing
• Harmful factors acting on object
• Harmful side effects
• Manufacturability
• Convenience of use
• Repairability
• Adaptability
• Complexity of device
• Complexity of control
• Level of automation
• Productivity

These parameters, and more, combine with aesthetics to comprise an engineering design.  In one sense, a design is the solution to a problem of function/purpose.  We ‘make things’ to serve a function/purpose.  All problems are compound entities made up of  ‘sub-problems.’  When we solve these sub-problems, which are basically decisions of what components to include in the solution, we start to solve the larger problem with a design.

 No problem is stand alone, but all problems and all designs that solve them, are comprised of component parts.  Behind all of these decisions is logic.  In choosing component parts, we are making logical decisions based on some criteria we have gathered.  Even if the decision is to defy logic, as in some works of art, this is a logical decision.

Design then, is a compound solution of form, function/purpose, and aesthetics that is created using logical processes to make decisions.