Design Approaches

Dr Batsirai Chivhanga

bchivhanga@cut.ac.zw
 Design Approach
• A design approach is a general philosophy that
may or may not include a guide for specific
methods. Some are to guide the overall goal of
the design. Other approaches are to guide the
tendencies of the designer.
 User Centred Design
• Focuses on the needs, wants, and
limitations of the end user of the
designed artifact
 Participatory Design
• Originally co-operative design, now often co-
design) is the practice of collective creativity to
design, attempting to actively involve all
stakeholders (e.g. employees, partners,
customers, citizens, end users) in the design
process to help ensure the result meets their
needs and is usable. Participatory design is an
approach which is focused on processes and
procedures of design and is not a design style
 Defining Design Insights
• Being insightful means having “the ability to
perceive clearly or deeply”. This penetration
results often in a “sudden understanding” of the
dynamics “of a complex situation or problem”
(Free Dictionary, 2010). That understanding can
then be used to search for innovative designed
solutions
 Defining Design Insights
• The American Heritage Dictionary elaborates on
this definition of being insightful as follows:

“The capacity to discern the true nature of a

situation – penetration. The act or outcome of
grasping the inward or hidden nature of things
or of perceiving in an intuitive manner.”
Phases of a Design Process

•Archer (1984) describes a standard design process as

follows:
•Analytical phase - the stage involves data collection
•Creative phase – consists of analysis, synthesis and
development
•Execution phase – involves finalising the product and
communicating to target audience.
Phases of a Design Process

•Rowe (1991) outlines a model that comprises the

following steps:
•Defining the need
•Undertaking a feasibility study
•Carrying out the initial design
•Detailed design.
Phases of a Design Process

•Lussow (1984) describes a four-phase design process as

follows:
•Phase 1 – defining the design problem, gathering
information about the target audience and analysing the
information (familiarizing, analysing)
•Phase 2 – creatively finding a solution (creative solution-
finding, ideating, synthesizing)
•Phase 3 –finalising the solution
•Phase 4 – refining the solution, testing with a target
audience and releasing final solution.
A Design Approach
 Phase 1 Contextual Analysis

• Phase 1 Contextual Analysis

• Contextual analysis, also called the analytical phase, will

entail framing the design problem of a context. Design research
techniques such as interviews and observations will be used in
this phase to study the context of the design research problem.
 Phase 2 Activity Centred Design

• This phase comprises of two main activities:

• The creative stage is when designers have to use their

expertise to provide a solution to the problems identified in
the contextual analysis phase. The creative process will be
kick-started by drawing insights based on the data gathered in
Phase 1.
• The execution stage marks a definite end to an iterative
design process. In this phase an evaluation of the demo with
the target audience takes place. The results from the
evaluations can be used to improve the final product or
service before market release.