the ultimate users, and they are often too numerous and of too w~de a range of values for optlmlzat~on to take place systematically Here we have a clue to one of the mlsmng factors which design might offer, the activity of integrating the quantifiable w~th the quahtauve, the knowns w~th the un- eertamtms, and the lnformatlon- based decisions w~th those based on value judgements But for this plocess to take place much more is needed than design becoming more cost, market and production conscious

It ~s useful to consider the total process of product development and the decisions and activities of all those involved as being the design process The orgamzatlon becomes a design entity and the marketing manager, the finance director etc, each contribute to the delineation and dehmtlon of the product In thls way ~t becomes clear that the interactions of these various interests must consti- tute design decisions, and that alternative demgn poss]biIltles and concepts alter the questions to be asked of the market, or the pricing ~mphcauons to be investigated

Hawng sald this there remains the question of the special concerns of those traditionally known as demgners, and the effects these concerns may have upon the object,yes, priorities and crltena which are instrumental in the shaping of products It is a commonly held, though by no means universal, new that designers per se are concerned wlth the interfaces of product and user, technology and society, that they mediate between technical power, commercial expediency and the capacity of the result to enhance the lives of people If designers sometimes seem over- concerned w~th the quality of life, w~th the environment, and vath the well being of people who use products rather than make them, perhaps it is because the manufacturing industries seem to see the destination and use of then products only in terms of market share and turnover

Perhaps the other, and very much related, complaint about the report ~s the extent to which marketing almost eclipses design as the factor most hkely to rescue British industry W'nere reference is made to perform- ance, or to needs, they are to be determined by 'marketmg' Product planning ~s seen as essentially a marketing ~esponslblhty, and it ~s advocated that the first stage m

product planning should be to estab- hsh the size of the market, make sale- abfllty evaluations and determine the competitive price at which the product should sell All befole any designing is done This is clearly desirable In some circumstances, but as an all embracing palliative for poor competmve per- formance it has certain flaws It ~s axlomauc that as soon as market requirements are ]dentlfied they are out of date They are founded on the expectations generated in people by what they know to exist Innovative products vath new characterlst,cs of performance, cost, quahty or appeal change people's perceptions of what they want and how badly they want it The manufacturer who bases his product development strategy on market research is likely to be a follower rather than a market leader Such an approach again reflects alack of clarity about the implications and effects of gwmg greater priority to design values m product development It is important to differentiate between market research, which is concerned with trends and gross indicators of the preferences of populations, and user studies, which are concerned with the knowledge and performance of individuals in relation to the design of specific man-machine systems The mformat~on thus generated ~s quite different m character and reqmres a different involvement of the design researcher in the industrial system than does market research

P~obably because of these weaknesses m the way that design ~s dealt vath, I find the conclusions and recommendations rather woolly and vathout, m some cases, any ob,nous mode of implementation

On education I shine the author's v~ew that there should be more opportumues for postgraduate and postexpenence education in design Whilst also suppoltmg the view that design and designers should be far more influential in the engineering industries It is disappointing to find the intended benefits and the natme of involvement so narrowly perceived and divorced from the wider concerns and emerging expectations which society now has of technology

Designers w311 find the ~eport sumulatm9 and even useful Manage- ment I fear vall only find their e~stmg attitudes confirmed, though I hope that they appolnt plenty of designers to the board rathe~ than glwng board members responslb]hty for design

C o p i n g w i t h a C o m p l e x F u t u r e

C H Wad{hngton, Tools tor TtToughr J{,i,athal,(~.au~ ' L~rlclo,, 1q7" ?50el. *BO5

~ t~ 91/ad(llngton, i-he Mall ~t~adc I'~ltUle, C[oom H.tm, Londo,, I~.},f-~, "555 pp, F9 95

[{,~vmwed bV Robin Roy Tiu Ol,m Lhtwmsit,, Mdton Keyne~, LIr~

Fo~ much ot i~;s cmeel C H Waddmgtor worked as a distinguished b]ologlst at the Institute of Ammal Genetics ~t Fx:lmburgh University In the last few yeals before he died (in September 1975) he turned his considerable intellect cnto the complex of environ mental, social, econotmc and techno logical problems which he saw facmq humanity m the last third of thl~ century These two books are a ~esuh of Waddlngton's desire to help to solve these problems and his belief that the general public should unde~ ~tand them

Tools for Thought is mainly about methods fo~ understanding and deahng with complex systems and of the two works is probably of greater interest to readers of DESIGN STUDIES New tools for thinking about complexity, Waddmgton argues, are needed because old fashioned commonsense (which approach is the Conventional Wisdom of the Dominant Group, or COW DUNG for short) Ls inadequate to cope vnth the interconnected systems which have led to the global problems o; pollution, overpopulation, food and energy supplies, nuclear war and so on [n parucular, commonsense methods are often incapable of predicting the ~mpact of a glven plan or pohcv or the total system, because big system,~ ~end to behave 'counter-intuitively Fo~ example, slum clearance pro g~ammes in American cities have ~esulted in the original slum a~ea beconung more overcrowded yarn even poorer people than before, ~gamst the expectations of the planners, because the new housing [,mlt to leplace the old slums attracted new people while at the same t~me destroying the original sources of employment and income m the ared

Waddmgton's main propose ~s to provide a plato person's guide to a large number of prormsmg techmques t.~r thmhng about complex systems ]~hese ,ange from basic statlstlc~ al,

60 DESIGN S TtJDI [-~

Venn diagrams, through systems theory, technological forecasting, catastophe theory, algorithms, and the theory of games, to a t tempts at modelhng the world system. The book is not an instruction manual to teach you how to use the methods, but an explanation of what each is about and some of its possible uses and limltataons. This Waddlngton does in very clear and straightforward language with almost no recourse to mathematics In addition, because Waddlngton regards pbalosophy as the 'spectacles' through which individuals perceive real-world problems, he provides a quick guide to the main systems of scientific philos- ophy and reveals himself as an anti- reductlomst understanding the whole of a problem or system requires more than an understanding of its consti tuent parts

The great strength of this book is its clear exposition of many esoteric and potentially quite useful ideas, such as the concept of the 'epigenetlc land- scape', as well as some simple and wellknown ones, such as exponential growth and feedback Its greatest weakness - or perhaps it is a strength - is that Waddmgton fails to demon- strate that the more novel methods he describes have much application to the global problems with which he is concerned, although he shows that they often have applications in biology or other areas of research. In fact Waddtngton is quite candid m stating that he is uncertain whether some of the methods have much value. For example, he notes that games theory was used to plan military strategy in the Korean and Vietnam wars, adding the remark, 'not perhaps a very persuasive test imony to its value' Somewhat paradomcally too, Waddmgton admits that one of the most practically useful of the methods, the brand of operational research developed during the Second World War, consisted basically of a common- sense look at the total problem reformed by a systematic and scientific approach to data gathering Had he been able to look back at these ideas five years on, Waddlngton would probably be the first to say that the enthusiasm for tackling world prob- lems at a global scale using sophisti- cated methodologies has been replaced by a more reahstlc view that the way of coping with complemty is to tackle problems regionally and locally, often using very modest and unsophisticated approaches

Tools for Thought is generously illustrated with diagrams These are unusual m that most have been pro- duced by an artist rather than a technical illustrator Although this gives the book an attractive appearance, the actual diagrams are not always useful in understanding the text This problem is made worse because of the large number of mispnnts. One of the diagrams is printed upside down and the illustrations intended for chapter 12 have been used in chapter 11 Fortunately these errors do not detract too much from the book's essential value as a guide to methods which experts have developed in the hope of coping with a complex world.

The Man-made Future was written as a companion volume to Tools for Thought and also appeared only after Waddington's death It consists of expanded vers*ons of a series of public lectures given by Waddmgton in the early 1970s when the environmental and Limits to Growth debates were still raging The particular value of The Man-made Future is that it gives a brief but very clear, reformative and authoritative analysis of eleven world issues, including food, population, urbamsa- tton, transport, pollution and war, all in a language that is quite accessible to the ordinary person. Anyone con- cerned with planning, thmlang about, or educating for the future would do well to read Waddington's overview of the problems.

CREA TI VITY NETWORK, 'the magazine for managers, educat~onahsts, desagners and anyone interested m creatnve Ideas'

Thus is the magazine described on the title page of the first issue of Volume 5 (1979) It IS the organ (I must look up the origins of the use of the word 'organ' in this context some day) of the Manchester Business School Creativity Programme Other parts of the Programme revolve research and industrial collaboration, renovation and problem-solving workshops, m-house training and meetings of the Northern Creativity Club. Tudor Pacl~rds is the Director of the Creativity Programme and the Editor 6f Creatlv2ty Network

Though not as extens*ve in its coverage as DESIGN STUDIES,

Cteatlv~ty Network is concerned with a toplc which is central to everybody interested in design Designing is nothing if it's not a creative activity.

Crammed into each quarterly issues' 50 odd pages are short articles, book reviews, puzzles, news and readers' letters. The impression one gets is of a vigorous, eclectic, positive, even creative approach, to creativity. Browsing through hack issues I came across a paper by Bruce Archer called 'Time for a Revolution in Art and Design Education' [Volume S No S (1977)] , then I found articles on 'Design Management' by Jeff Butler and 'The Pre-project Phase in Des*gn' by Alan Topahan (both in Volume 3 No 2). In fact, according to the subject index in Volume 4 No. 1 there are seven entries under Design However, there are many more of interest under such headings as Innovation, Divergent thinking, Forecasting, Models of thinking, Problem solving, Brain- storming, Synecttcs and so on

The basic purpose of Creativity Netwozk is to facilitate communlcataons between people interested in creativity In that it is not dominated by academics - I 'd guess there's about an even split between researchers, educationalists and trainers, and practit ioners (consultants, managers) m terms of article authorship - the magazine appears to be effective At £4 00 per volume it represents good value.

Reg Talbot

J E Gordon, Structures or why things don't fall down, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1978, 395 pp

The aim of this book is to provide an elementary account of structures which IS interesting and relates to everyday life The author puts this well by writing 'we shall have to ask, not only why buildings and bridges fall down and why machinery and aero- planes sometlmes break, but also how worms came to be the shape they are and why a bat can fly into a rose-bush without tearing its wings How do our tendons work ~ Why do we get ' lumbago '~ How were pterodactyls able to weigh so httle ~ Why do birds have feathers ~ How do our arteries

Vol 1, No 1,July 1979 61