Editorial

Special Issue of Design Studies

on Digital Design

he prevalence of digital phenomena in

our design lives has become so common and pervasive that we now refer
to this collective set of phenomena as Digital
Design. This special issue of Design Studies attempts to report on the impact of digital technology on design theory, design methodology
and design thinking. It attempts to provide initial perspectives of the signicant emerging
elds of research and design including: digital
design theory, methodology and techniques;
domain-specic disciplinary knowledge and
theory; and digital design media and technology. It also attempts to suggest their implication for research on digital design thinking.

Design theory, methodology and techniques: Innovative experimental precedents are now
emerging from design practice and academic
design experimentation. However, given the
growing impact of digital design on design
practice, we currently lack a well-dened
agenda for research that might elucidate digital
design. Theories and methods of digital design
can no longer be conceptualized as the merging
of computational tools with conventional formulations of design. The present condition of
theory and design in an age of digital media
presents the need to pioneer a new understanding
of the nature of design thinking in relation to

digital design media. There exists a need to reformulate fundamental concepts of design theory in order to consider their appropriateness
in this emerging eld.
Domain-specic disciplinary knowledge and theory: A new understanding of digital design as
a unique set of design phenomena demands
a theoretical and methodological formulation
of the symbiosis between the product of design
and the way it is now conceived and generated
in digital media. Digital media today are providing the stimulus to new intellectual and
disciplinary theoretical directions in various
design domains. Emerging digital practices
and design technologies are currently challenging designers of all disciplines to formulate
a new understanding of design. Digital design
has therefore become a central focus for new
domain theories.
Digital technology and digital media: Digital
technology is a force that has begun to profoundly aect design culture. Being digital has
begun to aect the way we represent, present,
communicate about, and materialize our designs by integrating media in the conceptualization, realization, communication, and
production of designs. It has become ubiquitous in virtually all design disciplines, and

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even while it continues to develop and evolve

rapidly, it is promoting a paradigm shift in
the denition and practice of the design disciplines. Furthermore, digitally mediated design
is becoming inter-related with concepts of the
virtual. Virtual design environments are becoming increasingly immersive, knowledge
rich, and intelligent.
Digital design thinking is now emerging as the
set of phenomena that characterize the way in
which the digital designer is beginning to think,
employing digital tools and interacting with
representational media. His mediated workplace and his electronic community are becoming his expanded e-identity. It is becoming
increasingly important to conceptualize this
emergent eld. We can expect that this will
also begin to generate a new body of design
research focused on such subjects as the cognitive, psychological and social behavioral characteristics of the digital designer.
As well as illuminating these subjects, the special
issue attempts to present a cross-section of opinions and international research institutions that
are contributing to the new discourse as well as
to digital design practice. The papers in the issue
include work in the various sub-areas. The
introductory paper, Theory and design in the rst
digital age, proposes that a new theoretical
framework for formulating the characteristics
and theoretical issues of digital design is now
necessary. The paper includes a review of significant events and precedents that are associated
with the emergence of digital culture and paradigms. Following this, a conceptual formulation
exploiting relevant early models of design is proposed as a basis for analysis and re-denition of
new characteristics of digital design.
On the basis of this a general representational
schema for the presentation of various models

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of digital design is developed by Oxman in her

paper, Theory and design in the rst digital age.
This general schema provides a framework
within which to foreground the various components, processes, and issues that dierentiate
it from conventional paper-based design. A series
of novel models of digital design are proposed.
Hernandez in his paper, Thinking parametric
design: introducing parametric Gaudi, formulates the principles of a parametric design
model. Parametric models are generally important in that they provide a high-level framework for manipulation and transformations
of geometrical components during the design
exploration process. Hernandez presents a generation parametric modeling technique and
demonstrates its application in the work of
Gaudi. Sass and Oxman in their paper, Materializing design, present digital design fabrication
(DDF) as an integrated, continuous design
process supporting conceptualization, materialization, fabrication and construction information. A Digital Design Fabrication (DDF)
method is introduced as a two-stage process
of working that integrates generative computing and RP into one continuous process. Rapid
prototyping is presented as a signicant design
medium that supports the full spectrum of digital design as a paperless method. This design
process is potentially situated to be connected
into a continuum between conceptual design
and real world construction. Liu and Lim in
their paper, New tectonics: a preliminary framework involving classic and digital thinking, have
proposed a framework for a theory of architectural tectonics. They analyzed digital design
cases, dened the analytical categories of classic tectonics and identied the characteristics
of digital tectonics. Kalay in The impact of information technology on design methods, products and practice examines the inuence of the
IT revolution on the design professions,

Design Studies Vol 27 No. 3 May 2006

especially that of architecture. He considers the

impacts of past technological revolutions on
established methods, products, and practices,
and examines the potential impacts of ubiquitous computing, telecommunication, masscustomization and embedded computing on
methods of design and construction. Ozkaya
and Akin in Requirement-driven design: assistance for information traceability in design computing claim that conventional design, creative
as this process may be, can fail to adequately
respond to design requirements. The digital
form of information management systems for
design would allow a traceability support system that can help detect inconsistencies between designs and their requirements. They
describe a model of information-based requirement-driven design thinking that facilitates consistent design rationale tracking and
evaluation, verication, and validation of design. Dearden in, Designing as a conversation
with digital materials, suggests that in

Editorial

developing characterizations of digital designing there is a need to consider the qualitative

nature of interactions that include the manipulation of digital materials. Dearden presents a view
that suggests that if digital designing diers from
other forms of designing, their accounts for the
dierences should be sought in the material
properties of digital systems and the genres of
work practice that surround their use.

The purpose of the special issue is to conceptualize, theorize, characterize and exemplify the
central and signicant phenomena of digital
design. Underlying these descriptive objectives
is the attempt to take rst steps in a process of
dening digital design as a eld of activity, in
formulating its research agenda, and in mapping the structure of a potential research
network.
Rivka Oxman

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