Simon | The Science of the Artificial (Chpt 5)

Literature Review // Simon, Herbert A. “The Science of Design: Creating the Artificial.” The Sciences of the Artificial. 3rd ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1996. 111-36. Print.

What was the author arguing?

Simon is talking about the science of design and in that, what that motivations and outcomes of design are. Here he makes his famous quote: “Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.” He is very concerned about the lack of design education in schools because of this unique approach, they’re not thinking about problems like designers do. SImon believes that even if these scientists never become expert designers (and visa versa) at least they will be able to have mutually beneficial conversations that are creative exchanges.

Part of the design process doesn’t always find the optimal solution but satisfactory ones because of constraints. We would have to find all the of the solutions in order to know whether one is the best or not and so its much more about the design process.

Why is this relevant? 

This was the other half of the Krippendorf article discussed before. Again, not that relevant I explicitly, but it’s important to see the common language that’s being using by design now.