Solving Critical Design Problems: Theory and Practice Tania Allen 9780367025830

Solving Critical Design Problems demonstrates both how design is increasingly used to solve large, complex, modern-day problems and, as a result, how the role of the designer continues to develop in response. With 13 case studies from various fields, including program and product design, Tania Allen shows how types of design thinking, such as systems thinking, metaphorical thinking, and empathy, can be used together with methods, such as brainstorming, design fiction, and prototyping. This book helps you find ways out of your design problems by giving you other ways to look at your ideas, so that your designs make sense in their setting.

Solving Critical Design Problems encourages a design approach that challenges assumptions and allows designers to take on a more critical and creative role. With over 100 images, this book will appeal to students in design studios, industrial and product design, as well as landscape and urban design.

Tania Allen is an Associate Professor of Art and Design and Design Studies at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.

"This book is written from the perspective of an individual who has studied, practiced and taught design. It is the interaction of these experiences that cause her to adopt a Socratic underpinning to the act of design. She inspires the reader to consider the act of design in the context of questions that stimulate thoughts of culture and place to enrich the utilitarian aspects of a design project. This approach opens the path toward inter and transdisciplinary approaches defining the act of design as a means to pose a way of seeing design as a rhetorical activity. It is this connection between the realization of artifacts and the role of design in the definition of culture that distinguishes this book. There is real substance in this monograph for the experienced design professional and it serves as an inside insight for those who are new to the design activity. It is worthy to be required reading in the classroom and is a must read for those who are seeking to understand the design culture."

Marvin J. Malecha, FAIA, DPACSA
President, NewSchool of Architecture and Design, San Diego, California