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Making Sense of Design
Effective design is at the heart of everything from software development to engineering to architecture. But what do we really know about the design process? What leads to effective, elegant designs? The Design of Design addresses these questions.
These new essays by Fred Brooks contain extraordinary insights for designers in every discipline. Brooks pinpoints constants inherent in all design projects and uncovers processes and patterns likely to lead to excellence. Drawing on conversations with dozens of exceptional designers, as well as his own experiences in several design domains, Brooks observes that bold design decisions lead to better outcomes.
The author tracks the evolution of the design process, treats collaborative and distributed design, and illuminates what makes a truly great designer. He examines the nuts and bolts of design processes, including budget constraints of many kinds, aesthetics, design empiricism, and tools, and grounds this discussion in his own real-world examples–case studies ranging from home construction to IBM’s Operating System/360. Throughout, Brooks reveals keys to success that every designer, design project manager, and design researcher should know.
Preface ix
Part I: Models of Designing 1
Chapter 1: The Design Question 3
Chapter 2: How Engineers Think of Design–The Rational Model 13
Chapter 3: What’s Wrong with This Model? 21
Chapter 4: Requirements, Sin, and Contracts 39
Chapter 5: What Are Better Design Process Models? 51
Part II: Collaboration and Telecollaboration 61
Chapter 6: Collaboration in Design 63
Chapter 7: Telecollaboration 89
Part III: Design Perspectives 103
Chapter 8: Rationalism versus Empiricism in Design 105
Chapter 9: User Models–Better Wrong than Vague 113
Chapter 10: Inches, Ounces, Bits, Dollars–The Budgeted Resource 119
Chapter 11: Constraints Are Friends 127
Chapter 12: Esthetics and Style in Technical Design 139
Chapter 13: Exemplars in Design 153
Chapter 14: How Expert Designers Go Wrong 167
Chapter 15: The Divorce of Design 175
Chapter 16: Representing Designs’ Trajectories and Rationales 185
Part IV: A Computer Scientist’s Dream System for Designing Houses 201
Chapter 17: A Computer Scientist’s Dream System for Designing Houses–Mind to Machine 203
Chapter 18: A Computer Scientist’s Dream System for Designing Houses–Machine to Mind 219
Part V: Great Designers 229
Chapter 19: Great Designs Come from Great Designers 231
Chapter 20: Where Do Great Designers Come From? 243
Part VI: Trips through Design Spaces: Case Studies 257
Chapter 21: Case Study: Beach House “View/360” 259
Chapter 22: Case Study: House Wing Addition 279
Chapter 23: Case Study: Kitchen Remodeling 297
Chapter 24: Case Study: System/360 Architecture 313
Chapter 25: Case Study: IBM Operating System/360 331
Chapter 26: Case Study: Book Design of Computer Architecture: Concepts and Evolution 347
Chapter 27: Case Study: A Joint Computer Center Organization: Triangle Universities Computation Center 355
Chapter 28: Recommended Reading 367
Acknowledgments 371
Bibliography 375
People Index 393
Subject Index 401