ABSTRACT

Design problems present a special challenge because of their nature. They form a special sub-group of what are now known as ‘wicked’ problems. Such problems characteristically have no complete description because, as you work on them, more issues appear and there is no way of knowing how many more lie as yet undiscovered. Solving such problems is a process without any recognisable end and they have no right or wrong answers. It is certainly not possible to find an answer that is unequivocally correct or even to know that any one answer is best. This is because there is no way of infallibly measuring success since so many issues are not commensurate. Each problem is unique and they have an inexhaustible number of solutions. All this suggests that designing is likely to be a rather special kind of process.