The Design and Development Process: Perspectives, Approaches and Models

This book explores a process perspective on design and  development, grounded in research in design studies, engineering design  and systems design.

The design and development  process is important---it creates all artificial products and systems  and determines how well they address human needs. The process  perspective set out in this book has value for design and development  practice and education, and is in its own right a fascinating topic of  investigation.

This book expands on the foundations  of a process perspective and discusses its realisation in many process  models, theories and approaches that have been developed over the years.  The chapters provide connected overviews of key concepts and introduce  new conceptual frameworks to clarify relationships between the  contributions discussed. Practical considerations and competencies  required to realise the tangible benefits of a process perspective are  also discussed.

A unique aspect of this book  is that it brings together many perspectives on the design and  development process: those that focus on individual design activity  through to those that focus on large-scale development projects; those  of research interest and those of practical interest; and those of  relevance to design contexts ranging from human-centered design to  engineering design and systems design. The chapter bibliographies  collect carefully-selected recommendations for further reading on each  topic discussed. The book additionally contains many figures presented  in colour, visually reflecting each topic's relationship to the new  organising frameworks that are introduced.