Design Methodologies: From Munari to Frascara
Bruno Munari
Bruno Munari defined projecting as a series of operations arranged in a logical order dictated by experience.
Objective of the Projecting Method
Achieving maximum results with minimum effort. The projecting method is not absolute or definitive. You can change the order of an operation if there are objective values that improve the process.
a. Problem Definition
In any problem, the first thing to do is define the problem as a whole. This serves to define the limits within which the designer must move.
b. Defining the Type of Solution
Once the kind of problem is defined, a decision will be made between various solutions: an interim or short solution, a purely commercial solution or one that lasts over time, a technically sophisticated solution, or a simple and economical one.
c. Elements of the Problem
Decomposing the problem into its various elements. This operation facilitates the projection as it tends to find small problems that lie behind particular subproblems sorted by category. Having solved the small problems one by one (and here begins to intervene creativity, abandoning the idea of looking for an idea), they are recomposed in a consistent manner from all the functional characteristics of each of the parties.
The principle of decomposing a problem into its elements to analyze comes from the Cartesian method.
d. Data Collection
Collect the data needed to study the elements of the problem one by one.
e. Analysis of Data Collected
Then, in a subsequent operation, all these data must be analyzed to see how they were resolved in each case, some subproblems.
f. Creativity
It replaces the intuitive idea or magic solution. So creativity takes the place of the idea and proceeds according to its method. While the idea, linked to fantasy, may propose unworkable solutions, creativity is kept within the limits of the problem.
Creativity, before deciding on a solution, considers all the necessary operations that are based on the analysis of data.
g. Materials and Technologies
Another collection of data relating to materials and technologies that the designer has at their disposal for the project.
h. Models
Partial solutions to scale or the size of two or more solutions.
i. Verification
The models must be subjected to verification to check their validity. At this point, it is an economic control of production cost.
j. Constructive Drawings
They serve to communicate to persons not knowledgeable of useful information for making a prototype. They should be clear, legible, and sufficiently detailed.
The pattern projecting method is not a fixed pattern; it is not unique nor definitive.
Projective Method of Gui Bonsiepe
Gui Bonsiepe proposes a methodology called design, and the methodology of this difference, and the need to specify the problem.
For Gui Bonsiepe, the design methodology is divided into three stages:
- a. Structuring the project problem
- b. Designing
- c. Completing the project
Any of these three stages can be subdivided into a number of different steps. The sequential order would never result in a linear character of the design process, since it can also function as an alternative and recurrent one.
a. Structuring the Project Problem
1. Discovery of a Need
There is a situation, such as an unmet need (situation of lack or deprivation) of a group or community.
2. Valuation of a Need
The necessity is judged according to its compatibility with other requirements, its priority over other needs, and the availability of resources. At this point, it should be established if the general formulation of the problem is at least justified. The lack of legitimacy of a project problem takes place according to general social criteria.
3. General Formulation of a Problem
According to information gathered, it describes the particular purpose of the graphical solution that has to be projected, as well as the overall purpose of the project.
4. Particularized Formulation of a Problem
It sets out specific requirements and functional characteristics of the graphical solution. On the other hand, it makes the variables that the designer may or may not control. It follows a precise space decision, within which the design solution must be found. The variables relevant to the purpose, means, and constraints have to be established as clearly as possible.
5. Fractionation of a Problem
The complexity of a problem is reduced to dimensions that are more easily treated; partial problems can be solved independently of each other.
6. Hierarchization of Partial Problems
These look for strategic or partial nerve problems to be solved first, to form the preconditions for entry into the structure of the problem.
7. Analysis of Existing Solutions
For known problems, it provides a comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of existing solutions. This procedure uses a list of criteria such as, for example, complexity, cost, technical feasibility, and so on.
b. Designing
8. Developing Alternatives
In this second phase, a number of techniques may be used, such as, for example, the search for analogies and brainstorming. Projective concepts are visualized by roughs, sketches, models, diagrams, pre-models, etc.
9. Selection of Alternatives
We estimated the following alternative proposals presented in a list of criteria. We choose the most promising; in the next phase, it will be reworked in its minimum particulars. The criteria may be detailed in a checklist and refer, for example, to functional feasibility, formal coherence, the degree of standardization, the systematic nature, complexity, and so on.
10. Elaboration of Particulars
The various component parts of the graphical solution are dimensioned, establishing tolerances, and pre-treatment is defined in the graphic parts. The construction drawings are used to produce the prototype or model.
11. Prototype Testing
The prototype or model undergoes a series of assessments to identify weaknesses and to eliminate them if appropriate.
12. Modification of the Prototype
According to previous test results, the project is improved and submitted to a new test, then construction drawings are made for the manufacture of the final graphics solution.
13. Manufacture of the Final Solution
The tested prototype is adapted to the technical conditions of production.
c. Project Implementation
This concludes the method of Gui Bonsiepe.
Method 3-Stage Design by J. Christopher Jones
For J. Christopher Jones, design is the beginning of change in things made by man. This definition can be applied to various human activities. It assumes that there are goals to be met before you begin.
Designers must be able to predict the ultimate effects of their proposals, how the actions to take to achieve these effects. Design is hard. The designer is required to use current information to predict a future situation that does not enable unless their predictions are correct.
Design is a hybrid activity that depends for its execution on a correct combination of art, science, and some kind of mathematics, and it is more likely that they will succeed if we associate it exclusively to one of the three specialties.
The designer needs to establish scientific doubt and see the results of a controlled experiment, but it is of little use when the designer is dealing with the future of a possible solution.
Jones argues that the resolution of any design problem involves a certain combination of intuition and rationality. How do I get this mix of trials and calculations is not set and will depend on the particular problem and the designer in question.
This design process is confusing and disintegrated, the product of an exaggerated division of these stages. We need a coherent and inclusive process to operate effectively at the system level.
This new process would take 3 steps or basic categories: divergence, transformation, and convergence.
a. Divergence
Pre-design stage. Its aim would be to expand the boundaries of the design situation (discovering the stable and unstable, fixed and changing) to search for a solution.
The designer deliberately increases uncertainty, removing preconceived solutions and reprogramming their thinking with adequate information.
b. Transformation
Stage value judgments and technical judgments of highly creative: setting objectives, defining the problem, identification of critical variables, dividing the problem into subproblems in a way to judge their capacity solution, etc.
c. Convergence
It is the reduction of a range of options to a single design in the most simple and cheap way.
It is the only stage that would have a completely rational explanation.
Projecting Methodology, Proposed by Guillermo Gonzalez Ruiz
This method combines the author of several authors to reach this result:
1. The identification of the problem is to clarify the objective, defining the purpose of the design and its side branches. Einstein always said that the mere formulation of the problem was more important than its solution because it tends to sometimes be a matter of skill or experience, while the former necessitates raising doubts and new possibilities, and focusing on new angles on old problems, circumstances requiring the exercise of creative imagination from the beginning.
2. Data collection: It is indirect when it collects all the elements of any type, feasible to provide guidelines on the subject required, although at first sight, they have nothing to do with the problem. And when accumulated, direct and specific information relevant to the premises of the creative act.
3. A summary: The mechanism of hatching of the idea, processing of segregation, selection, removal, concentration, and purification of the produced data. It is a stage that develops in the unconscious or preconscious. Thomas Edison said that unconscious work is impossible without a prior stage of conscious effort.
4. The gestation: It may be unconscious and acquire characteristics of foreboding. The mind comes and goes at frequencies increasingly precise, and finished ideas or visual images in turn pass through the conscious and unconscious layers (in a disorderly manner at the start) to approximate the solution. At this point, the idea can be grasped yet.
5. Lighting: It comes without effort; it is a joyous act of fulfillment. The designer is encouraged by the conviction of having achieved the goal sought. It is a brief period where the state completely lowers anxiety that comes with all the preceding stages.
6. The development: the translation is the correct visual idea. Its construction in terms of graphic representation. It is the body of evidence, the concreteness of the finding, and tuning. This is the time of rigor, which is labor-intensive, meticulous, constructive, and representative.
7. Check: It is undetermined at the time. It can last seconds or continue indefinitely. It is self-consciousness of the adequacy of the proposed plan designed to end.
Methodological Study of Jorge Frascara
Jorge Frascara attempts to summarize the most consistent steps:
1 – Taking the work by the client
(first definition of the problem)
2 – Collecting customer information, product, competition, public
3 – Analysis. Interpretation and organizing information
(second definition of the problem)
4 – Determination of objectives:
a. Determination of channel
b. Study scope, context and message
c. Analysis of priorities and hierarchies
5 – Specifications for display
(third definition of the problem)
6 – Development of draft
7 – Customer Presentation
8 – Organization of production
9 – Implementation
10 – Verification