A Proposal for a Formal Definition of the Design Concept

Abstract

A clear and unambiguous definition of the design concept would be use- ful for developing a cumulative tradition for research on design. In this article we suggest a formal definition of the concept design and propose a conceptual model linking concepts related to design projects. The definition of design incorporates seven elements: agent, object, environment, goals, primitives, requirements and con- straints. The design project conceptual model is based on the view that projects are temporal trajectories of work systems that include human agents who work to design systems for stakeholders, and use resources and tools to accomplish this task. We demonstrate how these two conceptualizations can be useful by showing that 1) the definition of design can be used to classify design knowledge and 2) the conceptual model can be used to classify design approaches.