Design can be thought of as a model for such endeavours as are intended to result in industrially manufactured products by means of thinking and other intellectual activity. Familiarity with the thinking involved in the designing process is important, not only for those engaged in training designers, but for anyone desirous of systemizing the endeavour. One procedure for approaching an understanding of the way designers think is to describe it with the help of different metaphors. There are some metaphors for (...) thinking about complicated and interrelated phenomena that should lend themselves to illustrating the thinking involved in design, albeit with reservations — e.g. the difficulty of allowing due consideration for what is unthinkable and indescribable in this context. (shrink)

This paper deals with various aspects of the development of data systems for engineering materials. The problem considered here is the difference between the end-users' mental model of materials, which focuses on performance, and the concepts of properties of materials held by materials specialists. Previous treatises on this problem have elaborated on systems aspects in general, emphasising incompatibilities in the relationship mentioned and the means of overcoming these incompatibilities by service management. Another perspective applied has been the historical one, combined (...) with experience of traditional views on science and technology. The present paper pursues this general path by discussing the problem in terms of visions, illusions and myths. These phenomena are thought to be both inevitable in this context and necessary in any attempt to understand the dilemma of data systems for engineering materials. It is believed that the views of the different parties involved are to a great extent steered by visions, illusions and myths, examples of which are discussed. Furthermore, it is suggested that these phenomena have roots in, or are expressions of, paradigms and values related to world pictures. Admittedly eclectic, this discussion leads to the conclusion that a solution to the dilemma in question cannot be found within computer science, materials technology and design theory only. Guidance has to be sought in philosophy and theory of science as well as in literature and the arts. In order to make it possible to implement ideas arrived at by such means, practitioners of psychology will probably have to be consulted. (shrink)

During the last two decades considerable efforts have been made to develop computerized data systems for engineering materials. The results have not come up to the expectations of systems that can be used by designers for selecting of materials. Some factors have been recognized as responsible for the slow progress. It has proved difficult, however, for those involved in this development to make use of such information about the systems in question. Conflicts have occurred between different parties involved. It now (...) seems that too little attention has been paid to the historical background of knowledge and systems related to civiliziation and society. A recently published review of world history from the point of view of the emergence of information technology has provided a basis for some considerations about the nature and roles of data systems. It can be shown that certain activities or features characterize each period of civilization and the development of computers and computerization should be considered as part of this sequence. The same is true for the world history of thinking and knowledge. In the present paper these historical considerations are combined with the observation that in their thinking and perception of ideas people appear to carry with them traditions from the past in varying degrees. Hence differences of opinion about the nature and roles of materials data systems may be explained by differences in the imprint of historical developments on people's ideas. In order to apply this lesson to the development of materials data systems, one has to learn also from the varying interpretations of world history that have been written through the ages. The best approach will probably be incremental and pragmatic rather than holistic and synoptic. (shrink)