Designing for the unknown : a design process for the future generation of highly interactive systems and products

Highly intelligent systems, products, and related services lie at the core of our department of Industrial Design in Eindhoven. Based on the foundations of our department we identify three implications for the design process; our preferred design process is flexible and open, it values design action as a generator of knowledge and is driven by a student’s vision on the design opportunities that are afforded by emerging intelligent technology. We critically reflect on two existing influential paradigms of design methodology, i.e., the ‘rational problem solving’ process and the ‘reflective practice’ and find that both paradigms do not comply with our preferred process. They share a sequential approach to gathering information; a formal analysis phase precedes the creative conceptual phase. Moreover, the first paradigm considers design action to be an activity that implements information instead of an activity that generates information. We present an open and flexible reflective transformative design process that highly regards design action as a generator of knowledge next to analysis. Moreover, the process supports students to transform the world, and integrate knowledge, skills and attitudes, next to offering moments of reflection.