Supporting Situated Interpretation
The MIT Press eBooks · 2006
This paper discusses the role of interpretation in innovative design and proposes an approach to providing computer support for interpretation in design. According to situated cognition theory, most of a designer’s knowledge is normally tacit. Situated interpretation is the process of explicating something that is tacitly understood, within its larger context. The centrality of interpretation to non-routine design is demonstrated by: a review of the design methodology of Alexander, Rittel, and Schön; a protocol analysis of a lunar habitat design session; and a summary of Heidegger’s philosophy of interpretation. These show that the designer’s articulation of tacit knowledge takes place on the basis of an understanding of the design situation, a focus from a particular perspective, and a shared language. As knowledge is made explicit through the interpretive processes of design it can be captured for use in computer-based design support systems. A prototype software system is described for representing design situations, interpretive perspectives, and domain terminology to support interpretation by designers. THE NEED FOR COMPUTER SUPPORT The volume of information available to people is increasing rapidly. For many professionals this means that the execution of their jobs requires taking into account far more information than they can possibly keep in mind. Consider the lunar habitat designers who serve 2 G. Stahl as a key example in this paper. In working on their high-tech design tasks, they must take into account architectural knowledge, ergonomics, space science, NASA regulations, and lessons learned in past missions. Computers seem necessary to store these large amounts of data. However, the problem is how to capture and encode information relevant to novel future tasks and how to present it to designers in formats that support their mode of work. A framework for clarifying the respective roles for computers and people in tasks like lunar habitat design is suggested by the theory of situated cognition. Several influential recent books (e.g., Schön, 1983;