Stuck in a material , or how to approach constraints as gifts

One of the objectives for conducting research in the field of design is to increase the knowledge about the design processes and that could to lead to more satisfactory products. In this paper we will look at some examples that seem to have had influence from research. Some of these examples show success and others were not so successful. This is a very complex and large field and the ambition here is not to cover this in a ‘scientific’ way but in a ‘designerly’ way, i.e. heavily constrained and at the same time with an optimistic approach. Constrained because we will only investigate a few examples and only in some aspects. It is optimistic since the hope is that you, the reader, will find this interesting and maybe even useful. The examples are mostly from the field of interaction design and range from case studies, research papers and a radio program. But the results cover a larger field. In more detail this paper discusses these examples with the help of the concepts of ‘design space’ and ‘constraints’. Design space is here used to denote all the possible design solutions. Constraints are sometimes looked at as something negative, something that prevents projects from being successful. This may of course be the case sometimes, but more often constraints should be looked at as gifts from heaven. A good constraint can save lots of unnecessary work. There are different kinds of constraints and Gedenryd (1998) identifies three different categories namely rigid, somewhat flexible and completely flexible. Legislation is an example of a rigid constraint while client-imposed constraints are regarded as somewhat flexible. Designer-imposed constraints are completely flexible. It is of vital importance to have a deep understanding of the different constraints since only rigid constraints define the border of the design space. Designer-imposed constraints can be mistaken for rigid ones and thereby preventing the designer to construct a ‘good enough’ solution. In some of the examples the designer has taken the material or technique to build the solution with for granted. We can say they did not recognize how large the design space actually was. A result of this is that the solutions were not ‘good enough’. Another way to put this is to say that they did not get a good enough idea. And since it is not clear how ideas are constructed it is important for designers to have experience of reliable methods to use during the design processes. Designer-imposed constraints are one of the designers' most powerful tools. One reason is that they help in temporarily framing the work.