Many designers refer to design in genral as dealing with wicked problems. Re-reading Horst Rittels famous article is really worth the read. It makes me realize that the general statements that design problems are wicked problems is simply not true. Designing a chair is not a wicked problem as Derek Miller (one of our lecturers) stated in a discussion today. Reading Rittels article will clarify the issues. It also refers to the shortcoming of hard systems thinking and makes it clear why we use the approach of Systems Oriented Design combining not just any design practice with any type of systems thinking, but combining advanced design practice with mainly soft system thinking. Read Rittels article again! It is called “Dilemmas in a general theory of planning”
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