Abstract
In this chapter I conceptually characterize the development of design methodology and analyze the changes this development has induced in the role engineers play in design. First, three successive types of design methods are described, from traditional engineering methods to current design thinking methods. Second, I show that this succession of methods has shifted the role of designing engineers from that of an assistant supplying technical solutions to customers, to an autonomous role of exploring and addressing user and societal needs independently of customers. I argue that these changes in their role may give engineers a more independent position and a broader grasp of design practices. Yet engineers also have to share this position with designers from disciplines other than engineering, and engineers may even lose their new role. According to current design methods, innovative design involves more than applying technology to address needs. Hence, if engineering remains to be seen as the discipline that provides technology, design becomes a discipline different to engineering. Engineers will in that case be forced back into their assistant role and become suppliers of technical solutions to other designers.
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Notes
- 1.
Let me acknowledge that this characterization of traditional engineering design is somewhat simplifying matters. Design methodologists associated with the traditional understanding do recognize that engineering design is embedded in specific contexts and that engineering designers should mind the goals of their customers and be aware that much designing is instrumental to economic activities of companies (e.g., Roozenburg and Eekels 1995).
- 2.
It may be argued that since engineers can themselves be managers in commercial companies, engineers were already earlier involved in the exploration and development of new product ideas. More precisely, the point made here is that nowadays designing engineers are also increasingly becoming part of this exploration and development (private communication with Byron Newberry).
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Vermaas, P.E. (2015). Design Methodology and Engineering Design. In: Christensen, S., Didier, C., Jamison, A., Meganck, M., Mitcham, C., Newberry, B. (eds) Engineering Identities, Epistemologies and Values. Philosophy of Engineering and Technology, vol 21. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16172-3_8
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