La conception : de la résolution de problèmes à la construction de représentations

Abstract

DESIGN : FROM PROBLEM SOLVING TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF REPRESENTATIONS Based on Simon (1969/1996)’s approach to design, Goel et Pirolli (1989) defended that design is a generic activity : there are both significant similarities between the design activities implemented in different situations and crucial differences between these and other cognitive activities. The text extends this position in two directions. We present the perspective on design in today’s cognitive design research, and introduce our view of design as a construction of representations. Simon’s view of design as a standard problem-solving activity has been transformed in many cognitive design studies. His discussion of design problems as ill-structured has been elaborated upon. Design involves complex problems that are rarely decomposable into independent sub-problems. Designers often tend to generate, at the very start of a project, a few simple objectives to create an initial solution kernel to which they then are going to stick. However, rather than one, « correct » solution, design problems have several, more or less satisfying solutions. Problem analysis and solution elaboration progress in parallel, rather than in separate, successive stages. Design problems and solutions lack pre-existing, objective evaluation criteria. Reuse is a fundamental strategy. The opportunistic organisation of design continues to be under discussion. According to our view, designing consists in specifying an artefact (the artefact product), given requirements that indicate one or more functions to be fulfilled, and needs and goals to be satisfied by the artefact. At a cognitive level, this specification activity consists of constructing representations of the artefact until they are so precise, concrete, and detailed that the resulting representations specify explicitly and completely the implementation of the artefact product. This construction proceeds through three types of activities : Generating, transforming, and evaluating.