Editor’s note: This forum presents models relevant to interaction design and service design. It describes the models, how they might be used, and why they matter. It also describes the models’ origins and contrasts related models.
In its first year, forum articles described models of innovation process, design process (Analysis-Synthesis Bridge), customer experience cycle, learning in design and product development, the trend from a mechanical to a biological frame in design (era analysis), design research types (map), and interaction types (taxonomy).
However, none of the articles presented a model of models. We correct that oversight here.
Dubberly Design Office | hugh@dubberly.com
[1] Dubberly, H. and S. Evenson. “The Analysis-Synthesis Bridge Model.” interactions 15, no. 2 (2008).
Models are ideas about the world—how it might be organized and how it might work. Models describe relationships: parts that make up wholes; structures that bind them; and how parts behave in relation to one another.
For example, the sun rises in the east, moves across the sky, and sets in the west. Or the earth orbits the sun.
Models support communication and learning. Models help bridge the gap between observing and making, between research communities and design communities [1]. Models are especially important in interaction and service design.
drawn” [ 2]. Alan Kay noted, “Models are our voodoo dolls. We do most of our thinking in models” [ 3].
Models begin with things or events that we observe. We want to describe or explain what we see. Pieces fit together; patterns emerge; we posit causes and effects. Under this frame, evidence leads to models.
suggest
[ 2] Beer, S. Decision and Control: The Meaning of Operational Research and Management Cybernetics. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1966.
Observation can be a source of new models. Observation can be a source of new models.
Models are ideas about the world—how it might be organized Models are ideas about the world—how it might be organized and how it might work.
[ 3] Kay, A. interviewed in “Project 2000,” a video produced by the author while at Apple Computer, Inc., Cupertino, 1988.
A representation of the A representation of the A representation of the Coper- A representation of the Co per-Ptolemaic model of the “world nican model of the “solar system”—a geocentric view. system”—a heliocentric view.
Models help us make sense of things. Stafford Beer wrote, “Now in trying to account for the behavior of a complicated system, the scientist has first to represent it in the formal terms he knows how to manipulate.... The formal representation of the system that he builds is called a model. This model is something different than the diagrams that are
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May + June 2009
[ 4] Argyris, C. Reasoning, Learning and Action: Individual and Organizational. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1982.
Models are conjectures—hypotheses. They are not formed by deduction or induction but by abduction—inferring the most likely story to explain the evidence. Abduction is the creative heart of science, engineering, and design. Its mechanism remains unknown—though preparation and persistence may aid the process.
Models are not the special province of science. We use them all the time. Models help us recognize new situations as similar to others we have encountered. Without a model, recognizing the similarities might be difficult.
Models also help us predict likely futures: what actions other actors may take, consequences of those actions, and what actions best respond to threats or most efficiently help us pursue our goals.Armed with our models’ predictions, we act accordingly.
Chris Argyris wrote, “Although people do not [always] behave congruently with their espoused theories [what they say], they do behave congruently with their theories-in-use [their mental models]” [ 4]. Under this frame, models lead to action.
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