ABSTRACT
In the early years, when design was trying to establish itself as a discipline, it borrowed from the established discipline of science. Early methodologists got busy theorizing on the cognitive and pragmatic aspects of design based on scientific reasoning. Design methods embraced the analysis/synthesis approach, which had its roots in the positivist tradition. But as design as a discipline matured, one found that conjecture/analysis (C/A) model is better suited and has greater proximity to the ontology of design. But the fact is that conjecture/analysis is not being used in a structured or usable form. For the discourse on the C/A model to get more nuanced, we need more articulation on the building blocks of the model – the conjectures. Use of conjectures is not new in design pedagogy. Conjectures are whole or partial design solutions, which have been implemented in previous instances. This way of using conjectures aligns design to a constructivist philosophy. These solutions may come from the personal experience of the designer or from an external source, helping the novice designer or student to traverse the world of wicked problems.
This chapter identifies five typologies of conjectures used in pedagogy that can be leveraged as an effective pedagogic tool.
