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Editorial
M ' o s t readers of Design Studies will be
familiar with the use of keywords for
. searching databases, particularly
when conductirlg literature searches. Most will
also be familiar with the frustration of retrieving
lots of irrelevant references that just happen to
have the selected keyword attached to them, and
with the suprising and sometimes amusing
cross-connections that can occur with the same
word being used in quite different domains. The
word 'design' is perhaps especially prone to
appear in all sorts of different sources.
Because of these frustrations and surprises, over
the past year, we have been trying to be more
rigorous about the use of keywords that are
attached to the papers published in this journal.
Our intention is to limit the use of keywords to
a restricted set, so that literature searchers will
find Design Studies a reliable database, and it
will be easier to trace papers that are relevant to
one's interests. It will also make our own annual
indexes of published papers a more useful
resource, giving more cross-reference links
between papers on associated topics.
In order to begin the process of drawing-up a
restricted keyword list, we reviewed the unre-
stricted use of keywords that Design Studies authors had applied to their papers over the four
years 1992-1995. Over 200 different keywords
had been used (for 96 papers). Only 44 of these
had been used more than once. The most fre-
quent keyword used by authors had been 'com-
puter-aided design' or 'CAD' , which appeared
ELSEVIER
14 times. The next most frequently used was
'design process' (or 'processes'), which
appeared 11 times. The occurrence of a themed
topic in special issues influenced some of the
uses of keywords, for example 'engineering
design, (10 occurrences) and 'protocol analysis'
(8 occurrences), which were the subjects of spe-
cial issues in 1995. But some 170 keywords had
been used once only, and another 28 had been
used only twice.
Therefore, in consultation with the Regional
Editors, we began trying to reduce the list to
something more manageable, which allowed
authors enough freedom to characterize their
paper appropriately from a restricted set of key-
words. We have now established a Design Stud-
ies keyword list of 100 words, which authors are
asked to select from but with the possibility of
adding one other word of their own choice. The
restricted keywords list is printed at the end of
this Editorial, and provides a useful indicator of
the range of subject matter covered by this jour-
nal. The list reflects the range of design domains
that we cover, and the variety of interests that
our authors bring to their studies of design. The
first and last words on the list perhaps indicate
the span of our eclecticism: from aesthetics to
workplace design.
In this particular issue it is a pleasure to be able
to begin with the inaugural lecture given by Pro-
fessor Michael Tovey at Coventry University. In
my previous editorial, this time last year, I
bemoaned the news that some colleagues in
0142-694X/97 $17.00 Design Studies 18 (1997) 1-4 PII: S0142-694X(96)00036-1 © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved
design research seem not to be getting the recog-
nition they are due in terms of academic pro-
motion. Now at least we have this example of
Michael Tovey getting a well-deserved Chair at
Coventry, and recognition of his research in a
difficult, hybrid area, that of computer support
for the 'styling' function in automotive design.
As with many other areas of design, the intro-
duction of computer support for stylists has been
at first resisted and then used as a means of
beginning to get a clearer idea of the purpose
and value of the function that is to be supported.
Tovey's paper addresses the nature of the 'intuit-
ive' processes involved in industrial design, and
surveys the research in CAD that he has been
pursuing.
Wright's paper also provides a useful review,
looking at the literature on managing the 'neces-
sary evil' of engineering changes - - the modi-
fications to product components that sometimes
have to be introduced after the product has
entered production. Wright suggests that this
'problem' might more often be seen as an
'opportunity', affording incremental evolution in
product design. It is not inconceivable that such
a change in viewpoint would be assisted by the
kind of knowledge management facility being
explored in the following paper, by Parent. The
suggestion of an engineering change would be
an opportunity for a dialogue to begin between
people with different perspectives on the design
of the product in question; or the initiation of a
dialogue might lead to suggestions for incremen-
tal product improvements.
The paper by van der Voordt, Vrielink and van
Wegen is concerned with architectural design,
and studying the relationships between the spa-
tial layout of a building (its floorplan) and the
'social configuration' that is implied, encour-
aged or constrained by that layout. They inte-
grate comparative floorplan analysis with post-
occupancy evaluation in order to assist better
developments of building programmes (design
briefs) and building designs.
Verma's paper is also in the architectural design
domain, but is about design education and there-
fore has relevance to most other domains as
well. The paper is based on an empirical study
aimed at exploring the relationships between
students' prior professional experience and their
education in design theory. Does prior experi-
ence help or hinder the learning of theory? The
results of the study support the view that theory
is more usefully introduced after students have
had some practical experience. In the same con-
text, Cooke argues for the inclusion of training
in 'consistent methods of reasoning' within
architectural education, and he uses law as a
paradigmatic source for such reasoning methods.
Presumably, similar considerations of the devel-
opment of reasoning abilities should apply in all
domains of design education, and this therefore
ties in well with Holt's paper on the role of judgement in engineering design. Once again we
see how common themes underly some appar-
ently rather diverse contributions to the study
of design!
Nigel Cross
2 Design Studies Vol 18 No 1 January 1997
Design Studies keywords list aesthetics architectural design artificial evolution artificial intelligence automotive design built environment case study/studies collaborative design communication community architecture computational n~Lodel(s) computer-aided design computer-supported design conceptual design concurrent design creative design creativity decision making decision support systems design activity design automation design behaviou~" design cognition design educatio~ design history design intervention design knowled~;e design management design methodology design method(s) design model(s) design participation design philosophy design policy design practice design precedenls design problem(:0 design process(es) design rationale design research design science
design strategy design studies design techniques design technology design theory design tools detail design distributed design drawing(s) eco design embodiment design engineering design environmental design environmental impact epistemology ergonomics evaluation expert systems facility programming generic design goal setting graphic design green design human factors industrial design information design information processing innovation interface design interior design intuitive design marketing mechatronics modelling perception planning problem solving product design product development product modelling product testing programming psychology of design
Editorial 3
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