Questions to Ask
When Making Models
For any set of observations (or system), we may imagine many models. And for any (mental) model, we may imagine many representations.
All models have a purpose and serve constituents. Models have a point of view; and they advocate it. Models are always political. Acknowledge the subjectivity of modeling: Consider your constituents. Speak with them to learn their needs and their views of the system (situation).
Directly observe the system; record your observations. If you are modeling a system that does not exist, observe similar systems.
Constituents’ goals and system observations form the criteria against which we judge both model and representation.
Models are not objective. They leave things out. They draw boundaries between what is modeled and what is not, between the system and its environment, and between the elements of the system.
Framing a system—defining it—is editing. What we think of as natural boundaries, inside and outside, are somewhat arbitrary. The people making the model choose what boundaries to draw and where to draw them. That means they have to agree on the choices.
• What level of abstraction or degree of granularity is appropriate? Enlist others to work with you. Begin with discussion. Use a whiteboard to record comments. Record the whiteboard in photographs.
Write a working title for the model.
Create quick, low-fidelity sketches. Identify the system’s elements and write the name of each on a Post-it note. At the beginning, don’t worry about having too many elements or the wrong elements. Editing comes later.
Arrange the Post-it notes to describe the system’s structure. Group similar elements. Place elements that often interact near each other. Avoid repeating elements. Label connections.
Review your proto-model to see which model primitives or patterns it includes. Are these appropriate, or would others be better? Does the proto-model build on or suggest already established or generalized models?
Revise your proto-model.
Present the proto-model to your constituents; tell them the model’s story. Observe their reactions; ask for feedback; reflect on what was easy or difficult to explain. Record these results, and create an “issues” list for debugging the model.
Revise. Increase fidelity and detail as appropriate. (Determining what’s appropriate becomes easier with practice—as your model of modeling grows.)
The quality of models and representations increases with iteration, so Iterate.
suns orbiting the center of a galaxy. A system in which one element revolves around another is a fundamental pattern—a “primitive” or building block of models.
We use models and learn through them, not only as individuals but also as groups. Learning takes place on at least four scales:
1) Individual
2) Work-group (or play team), which is composed of individuals
3) Organization, which is composed of work-groups
4) Culture, which is composed of organizations
Learning—forming and reforming models— begins with individuals. It can expand to work-groups, organizations, and even entire cultures. That is, a model may be highly idiosyncratic, rarely shared with others. Or it may be highly conventional, widely shared by others.
At each scale, three levels of process are at work:
1) Primary—the activity at hand; understood through models.
2) Second-order—direct learning (and designing); improving primary processes, that is, refining models of primary processes.
3) Third-order—meta-learning (learning about learning); improving second-order processes, that is, improving models of learning and models of models.
Passing models from one generation to the next is a responsibility of teachers and managers. Models are what students take away from school and what young people take away from early jobs. Models are what you remember after leaving.
Peter Senge noted that developing and sharing models is fundamental to “learning organizations.” He suggests that a leader’s role is to improve both his or her own mental models and those of the organization—to test and add to the mental models of others [ 5].
Design is a young profession; design practices that operate as learning organizations are rare. Typically, models remain implicit. Students learn by watching teachers, managers, and colleagues. Universities, professional organizations, and design practitioners have much opportunity to improve the way designers learn—to develop systems for forming and reforming models of design processes.
Earlier, I described observation shaping models; but models also shape what we see—what we let our-
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