What Designers Know

Each chapter deals with a different technique from which we can best represent and make explicit the forms of knowledge used by designers. The book explores whether design knowledge is special, and attempts to get to the root of where design knowledge comes from. Crucially, it focuses on how designers use drawings in communicating their ideas and how they converse with them as their designs develop. It also shows how experienced designers use knowledge differently to novices suggesting that design expertise can be developed. Overall, this book builds a layout of the kinds of skill, knowledge and understanding that make up what we call designing. It provides an exploration of research techniques giving an insight into the source of design knowledge. It illustrates how designers interact with their drawings and with computers in developing their knowledge. It provides the latest debates on the nature of design knowledge.