Design as Argumentation and Power-Acting - Theory and Methods

The process of design is seen as the generation, transformation and communication of knowledge in the brains of the professional designers and other persons and groups, who are interested in or concerned by the design output and who would or should participate in the design process. Only if it is known how these kinds of information and communication processes work, computer support is possible. Design thinking follows a microstructural scheme. A steady change of the understan-ding of the problem also changes the sight of the solution and also changes the need for knowled-ge contributing to the solution. In all stages of the design process alternatives or alternative ways of action are generated. The participants communicate about questions feasibility, the distribution of advantages and disadvantages, expected consequences, and other possibilities. They exchange positions and arguments, upon which finally they base their weighting of aspects and their personal judgement. The process of argumentation and evaluation is considered, it can be formalized and supported by formal methods. The decision about a design alternative by different people is not only based on explicit argumentation and/or formal evaluation procedures, but also on the use of power. Different means of power are stated. Some decision making procedures which control the misuse of power, are discussed