Design is not defined by software programs, 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 of design as their premise, in The
Design Way, Harold Nelson and Erik Stolterman make the case for
design as its own culture of inquiry and action. They offer not a
recipe for design practice or theorizing but a formulation of
design culture¿s fundamental core of ideas. These ideas--which form
¿the design way¿--are applicable to an infinite variety of design
domains, from such traditional fields as architecture and graphic
design to such nontraditional design areas as organizational,
educational, interaction, and health care design.
¿The second edition of The Design Way is the most useful and enjoyable book on design that I have yet read. It digs very deep into the intellectual and historical foundations of design thought in order to generate practical wisdom. If only the first chapter of this book was required reading for every first-year MBA student, the business world would be a much better place. And if it was also required reading for every science and technology policy person, we would actually have useful innovation policy. Harold Nelson and Erik Stolterman have produced a genuinely great contribution.¿ --Roger Martin, Dean, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
Harold G. Nelson was 2009¿2010 Nierenberg Distinguished Professor of Design at Carnegie Mellon University and is currently Senior Instructor in the Graduate School of Business and Public Policy at the Naval Postgraduate School and President of Advanced Design Institute. Erik Stolterman is Professor of Informatics and Department Chair in the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University Bloomington.
