Humans did not discover fire--they designed it. Design is not defined by softwareprograms, blueprints, or font choice. When we create new things--technologies, organizations,processes, systems, environments, ways of thinking--we engage in design. With this expansive view ofdesign as their premise, in The Design Way, Harold Nelson and Erik Stoltermanmake the case for design as its own culture of inquiry and action. They offer not a recipe fordesign practice or theorizing but a formulation of design culture's fundamental core of ideas. Theseideas--which form "the design way"--are applicable to an infinite variety of designdomains, from such traditional fields as architecture and graphic design to such nontraditionaldesign areas as organizational, educational, interaction, and health care design. Nelson andStolterman present design culture in terms of foundations (first principles), fundamentals (coreconcepts), and metaphysics, and then discuss these issues from both learner's and practitioner'sperspectives. The text of this second edition is accompanied by new detailed images,"schemas" that visualize, conceptualize, and structure the authors' understanding ofdesign inquiry. This text itself has been revised and expanded throughout, in part in response toreader feedback.
