Design Visualisation 1997- Ranjan M P

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Design Concepts & Concerns © 1997 NID, Ahmedabad© 1997 NID, Ahmedabad© 1997 NID, Ahmedabad© 1997 NID, Ahmedabad© 1997 NID, Ahmedabad 11111

AEP Bridge SemesterAEP Bridge SemesterAEP Bridge SemesterAEP Bridge SemesterAEP Bridge SemesterNational Institute of DesignNational Institute of DesignNational Institute of DesignNational Institute of DesignNational Institute of DesignPaldi, Ahmedabad - 380 007.

16 October 1997

DesignDesignDesignDesignDesignVisualisationVisualisationVisualisationVisualisationVisualisationM P RanjanM P RanjanM P RanjanM P RanjanM P Ranjan

Design is a responsibleand creative activitythat aims tounderstand humanneeds and aspirationsin order to generateeffective alternatesolutions that canresolve these needs. Byits very nature the

process of design dealswith extremelycomplexinterrelationships ofissues and concerns ofthe user, theenvironment and thewell being of society insocial, technological and economicrealms. The designer is therefore in the

arena of generating scenarios andspecifications and offering these forselection and decision within theframework of professionalcontributions offered to a wide varietyof clients. The nature and complexity ofdifferent design tasks may vary to agreat extent. Some tasks aretechnologically complex but mostdesign tasks deal with other realms

of complexity in the social,economic or psychologicaldimensions of users and thecommunity that supports the

conduct and performance of thetask.

Design has therefore moved from

being an individual enterprise tothat of being a team effort with avariety of members being drawnfrom a large number of diversedisciplines, the selection dependingon the nature of the task and ourcurrent understanding of the same.

Professional design has the furthercomplexity of being

conducted in an extremelycompetitive business andeconomic landscape where thedemands of time and qualityare stringent and isaccompanied by a very highdegree of risk. These pressureshave mandated a number ofcritical changes in theprocesses that designers andtheir collaborators employ in

the conduct of the designprogramme. Design hasborrowed work strategiesfrom all formal disciplineswhere effective approachesand methodologies have beeninnovated and developedthrough experience and

research. The morphology of thedesign task has therefore become a

complex set of iterations thatrevisit the stages of defining andredefining the task leading toimproved understanding of thetask itself. In this process severalalternate scenarios are developedand examined critically and thismay lead to restatement of the veryproblem itself.

Design thinking is distinctly differentfrom scientific and managementthinking styles in that the designerand the design team are willing to




cope with a great deal of ambiguitywhile the boundaries of the designopportunity are gradually broughtinto sharp focus. The process of

refining the understanding of thedesign task and that of generatingalternate solutions or scenarios followone another in fairly quick cycles andare mediated by interactions withreal users in many cases. The usercentered ideology adopted bydesigners in recent years hasnecessitated the creation of severalnew stages in the design process.

Early concepts and prototypes areshared with users with the use ofpreliminary visualisations that arespecially conceived to permit userparticipation or facilitate userobservation to develop insights intopotential problems that are notperceptible in the normal course ofconcept development. It is theattitude of the designer that is put tocritical test in such cases where it is

very easy to slip into the mode thatthe "designer knows best" which is inthe final analysis counter productive.The designers visualisation skills andcognitive capabilities are needed tocreate new and unique solutions, butthe evaluation of each of these isdone through user mediatedprocesses that have proved to bemost effective.

The designer is then called upon toinnovate appropriate representationsof the design concept in whole or inpart so that individual or groups ofusers can interact with theserepresentations and provide freshinsights into both the nature of theproblem and the suitability of thesolution. Here the challenge is to

discover and use appropriate toolsand media that are best suited to theprocess of visualisation and theprocess of evaluation. The tools and




media need to be selected with careso as to afford fluent representationof complex relationships orgeometries, form and content,

structure and context that is requiredby the particular design task.

Traditionally the use of a variety oftypes of drawings were the preferredmodes of visualisation used bysculptors, artists, architects anddesigners. However in recent timesmany examples of direct modelling insoft materials have been explored

where drawing would limit or inhibitthe perception of new and uniquepossibilities. Preferred styles ofvisualisation of individual designersmay also emerge from theirprofessional habits, degree of skillwith the tools of their trade and thecognitive modelling capabilities ofthe individual. Each design disciplineor design school may advocate certainstandards for the design students or

practitioners from their group. Tradepractices in particular industries mayalso set demands for certain standardspecifications to be followed by thedesigner in the manner in which thedesign concepts are delivered to theclient for further action and decision.Many of these standardised methodsof representation reflect thecommunication and documentation

norms of the industry or trade inquestion. Notwithstanding these

trade practices and norms theindividual designer is always at libertyto explore their personal repertory ofmedia and skills in the early stages of

design visualisation when theemerging images of the externalmodels are primarily intended tocapture the fleeting cognitive mapsand scenarios that are beingiteratively explored by the designer.

Such early external visualisations arebarely recognisable as coherentimages to a casual observer, however

for the designer they are of greatsignificance since this is perhaps thefirst stage of the dialogue betweenthe left and right hemispheres oftheir brain that is facilitated by theexternal model, howeverrudimentary. These earlyvisualisations take many forms andthese depend on the media that thedesigner may choose to employ atvarious stages of their work and these

may be deliberately varied as a resultof experience or in an effort to openup new and unusual possibilities inresponse to the challenges of thedesign task. These externalmanifestations may be barelydiscernible doodles or smudges thatfor the designer represent a rapidlyexecuted trace of the cognitive modelthat is being continuously refined,

modified and developed in thedesigners mind. While sketching and




doodling are used extensively by thedesigner for this early stage ofvisualisation there are a number ofother media that are used.

One characteristic of the media that isin common is that it is very fluid andhas soft features as if to reflect thefuzzy nature of the cognitive modelat this early stage of designexploration and development. Theseexternal traces and markings onpaper or soft materials provide thedesigner with the multilevel and

internodal dialogue between the twobrain hemispheres that is critical forcreative reinterpretations ofpossibilities and for patternrecognition of complex newrelationships that may have beenstudied in isolated instances but thatneeds to fall together in the processof design synthesis. Design decisionsare made as a sequence of choicesexercised by the designer at the time

of articulation of the external model.

The design visualisation progresses bythe designer creating a series ofimages or models, each anembodiment of a particular set ofcharacteristics as determined by thedata available, the analysis of the taskand the user or as perceived by thedesigner at that particular point of

time in the design process. This veryact of articulation brings new insightsand may shift the direction ofexploration or launch the designerinto a search for a particular detailthat may be critical in making the

overall concept to be either viable orinteresting. Thus the designer movesfrom the general to the particular,from the macro to the micro level ofobservation of the cognitive modelthat is constantly being refined andelaborated without freezing on anyone specific alternative. Usually the

designer defers decision on specificattributes and leaves some difficultdetails in an ambiguous state in adeliberate effort to obtain clarity ofthe larger patterns and relationshipsof the solution before solvingparticular structural, formal orproduction problems.

In the user centered design ideologyadopted by many designers and by

several design led companies, theearly prototypes and external modelsare prepared expressly with theintention that they be shared bygroups of users in a variety if real usesettings so that they can providecritical insights into the strengths andweaknesses of a particular designsolution. Numerous iterations aremade, each exploring one or more

dimensions of the design opportunityand these are documented so thatthe design team can develop aconviction about the particulardirections to be taken in each case.




These external models begin as veryabstract and fuzzy representationsand these are gradually refined andelaborated till more concrete models

replace earlier representations. Thesemodels, when drawing and sketchingare used as a route for visualisation,grow out of thumbnail sketches,doodles, scale drawings, orthographicdrawings, breadboard models fordetails of construction orperformance of mechanisms, scalemodels and renderings for formreview, full scale mock-ups and

fabricated prototypes where everpossible.

It may be useful to look at a fewexamples of such visualisation inaction. Let us look at a potter as ametaphor for the process of earlyvisualisation. An artist, designer orstudio potter, working at the wheeland making the model of the claypot works

with clay in aseries ofiterations toproduce oneparticular pot.A lump ofprepared clay

is centered on the potters wheel andthe material is turned at a suitablespeed. The potter applies her handsto the rotating clay and observes the

transformation of the form with eachapplication of pressure. The form ofthe pot emerges as a result of hersubtle manipulations. The feedbackto the potter is not merely a visualappreciation of its form, but with theeyes closed, she can feel the shapeand size of the emerging pot, at onepoint too tall and at another toowide, leading to a corrective pressure

on the tips of her fingers or at thebase of her palm.

Each application of pressure and theresult thereof is a result of years offine training and experience andeach pot is a unique expression of adesign intention that is revealed tothe designer in the progressiveiteration of its making. The designer

would have

had thechance to see,feel andevaluatenumerousintermediatestages before




a design and aesthetic decision isfrozen in the shape of the finishedpot.. If the making of a pot is takenas a metaphor for the early stage of

design visualisation, then we see thata very flexible medium is manipulatedthrough numerous iterations beforethe designer moves on to anotherapproach or attempt to resolve thevarious conflicting variables of thetask at hand. The cognitive modelheld by the designer too getsenriched through each iteration.

Each new "pot" adds to the designersexperience of the various scenariosthat were explored and it helps formsome deep bonds with preferreddirections especially if these areconfirmed by the interactions withusers who are able to see for the firsttime the "products" of the designerscognitive explorations. In this processthe cognitive model getsprogressively detailed and is far more

complex and detailed than anyrepresentation. The designerscognitive model is rich in detail and isinstantly recalled under varyingcircumstances of the user andenvironmental conditions. Thedesigner sees the solution by day andby night, feels the air flow around itscontours and can sense the soft feelof the flexible material of a handle

even if it is only in the mind at thisstage.

The designer lives with the changingmodel through numerousrefinements and critiques from usersand colleagues. In team mediated

processes it becomes critical that allmembers of the team are clued in tothe current state of the model andtheir individual contributions arethen directed at solving particularaspects of the design task that theirspecial skill or expertise enable. It isimportant to generate these externalmodels in a suitable media. Sketchinghas been used by many architects as a

means of capturing complex conceptsthat need to be clarified anddeveloped through numerousiterations before communicativedrawings or scale models can bemade. The works of architects ReimaPietila and Louis I Kahn are welldocumented examples of greatdesign vision being captured througha series of fuzzy sketches leading tothe articulation of some of their

finest works of architecture in India andelsewhere. Kahn designed the IndianInstitute of Management campus atAhmedabad and his early sketchesspeak volumes of the highly refinedcognitive model that he carried about inhis head long before a single brick waslaid at the campus in Ahmedabad.Similarly the Finish Embassy at NewDelhi emerged from some very fuzzy

markings and doodles in pen and inkand dry pastels from the experiencedhands of Pietila. The key decisions aremade in the mind's eye and the externalmarkings at this stage are but a trace ofthe rich cognitive model where somecritical details or proportions areexpressed as a slight stress in thequality of a line of the thumbnail sketchif you can call it a sketch.

Like foot prints in the sand on acrowded beach these fleetingimpressions are captured on paper (or




clay) by the designer in an attempt toclarify and elaborate the form,structure, performance, content andcontext of the design solution, all in a

single moment of design synthesis,only to be reviewed and revised asthe design task progresses to itsformal conclusion. For the designerthese markings are very personal andmemorable just as for the personstrolling on the beach his very ownfootprints are clearly distinguishedfrom those of all the others, whichfor him is mere noise. Very few

design tasks are documented toretain some of these moments ofbreakthroughs that are achieved onthe back of an envelope or through alittle doodle on the corner of a largedrawing that just lets all the complexvariables fall neatly in place for thedesigner to know that the solution is

near at hand. The excitement of themoment is sharp and intenseparticularly after many attempts werefrustrated by the critical needs of theproblem at hand. Sometimes thedesigner too is unprepared to see theradical proposal that has emergedfrom the subconscious just asLeonardo Da Vinci and his colleaguesignored the perfect sketch of a

bicycle drawn on one of his sheets.Mankind invented or should we sayreinvented the bicycle four hundredyears later as a result of this

oversight.

There are many dimensions to designvisualisation and it is this special

capacity of the designer to generatevisible and tangible scenarios tocomplex needs that makes theprofession different from themanagers who also develop strategiesand scenarios for action in their ownway. However these are rarelyexpressed in visual form but in theform of feasibility reports and verbalspecifications. It is then the designers

task to give form andexpression to thesestrategies and theparticular embodiment ofthe design strategy iscaptured and the imageproduced carries with itmessages of a complexnature be it fashion,reliability or meaning to aset of users or the

community.

Source for IllustrationsSource for IllustrationsSource for IllustrationsSource for IllustrationsSource for Illustrations

Pietila: Intermediate zones in ModernArchitecture, Museum of FinnishArchitecture, Helsinki, 1985.

Leonardo: The Artist, Anna Maria Brizio et al,Hutchinson, London, 1980

Leonardo: The Scientist, Carlo Zammattio etal, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York,

1980

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Design Visualisation 1997- Ranjan M P

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