So many of the design books that I have focus on the how of design or belabor how important design is to our otherwise dull, drab human condition. Nelson and Stolterman in this important book look at the philosophical underpinnings of design. From the very start, the western philosophical traditions cleaved off the value of doing and making from the much higher valued process of thought. The Design Way aims to redress this imbalance by making explicit the value of design and the way of the designer.

The authors claim that design should be viewed as the first tradition, not simply a process that follows thought. The book grabbed me right at the start with their hierarchy of change:

“In order to develop a tradition of design thinking, his concept of intention needs to be added as an agent of change to the ones already existing. The concept of change needs to be deepened as well in this context. Change – in relationship to design wisdom – has multiple levels of meaning, significance and consequence, as shown in the following figure:

Change
Is
Difference
.
Change of Difference
Is
Process
.
Change of Process
Is
Evolution
.
Change of Evolution
Is
Design

I was so enamored with this book that I sought meetings with Harold and Erik. As we sat in a small Italian restaurant in Bloomington, IN, where Erik is the director of the Human Computer Interaction Design program of the School of Informatics at Indiana University, they shared that they were in the process of writing the follow on book to The Design Way. My first question was “how do you go about writing a book together when you are so geographically remote?” They both laughed and then went into Socratic mode “You read the book. You tell us.”

Having spent a lot of time around academics, I didn’t easily fall into the trap. So with a little more wine, they were kind enough to talk about their process. Not surprisingly it was very congruent with the philosophy of design expressed in their book. For a year or two before writing, they meet once every two months for a couple of days to dialog. The dialog leads to themes which then lead to an outline. Then the writing starts, but with the goal of creating a dialog first between themselves and then in a way that invites the reader in. That way of writing was so powerful it led me to enter their dialog if only for a brief moment.

There are many other design books, but this book provides the foundation for a lifetime of designing.

Books by Harold G. Nelson and Erik Stolterman