ABSTRACT
While we no longer believe that it is possible to plot a common route through the process of designing, we can identify a number of activities that must take place in some way at some time. This chapter identifies these cognitive activities and begins to explore them. They include: formulating, representing, moving, evaluating and managing. Formulating consists of identifying parts of the problem situation and possibly framing future activity through focussing on individual aspects. Representing obviously includes drawing, modelling and using computers. Moving includes making new solution propositions, sometimes these might be evolutionary developments of previous ideas and sometimes they might be completely new directions. Evaluating obviously includes assessing how well the current state of the design proposition will work. Managing is a meta-activity of either unconsciously or consciously steering the process between these various activities.
