EDITOR
Hugh Dubberly
hugh@dubberly.com
The Analysis-Synthesis
Bridge Model
Hugh Dubberly
Dubberly Design Office | hugh@dubberly.com
Shelley Evenson
Carnegie Mellon University | evenson@andrew.cmu.edu
Rick Robinson
Design Continuum | rrobinson@dcontinuum.com
The simplest way to describe the design process
is to divide it into two phases: analysis and synthesis. Or preparation and inspiration. But those
descriptions miss a crucial element—the connection between the two, the active move from
one state to another, the transition or transformation that is at the heart of designing. How do
designers move from analysis to synthesis? From
problem to solution? From current situation to
preferred future? From research to concept? From
constituent needs to proposed response? From
context to form?
How do designers bridge the gap?
The bridge model illustrates one way of thinking about the path from analysis to synthesis—the
way in which the use of models to frame research
results acts as a basis for framing possible futures.
It says something more than “then the other thing
happens.” It shows how designers and researchers move up through a level of analysis in order
to move forward through time to the next desired
state. And models act as the vehicle for that move.
The bridge model is organized as a two-by-two
matrix. The left column represents analysis (the
problem, current situation, research, constituent needs, context). The right column represents
synthesis (the solution, preferred future, concept,
proposed response, form). The bottom row represents the concrete world we inhabit or could
inhabit. The top row represents abstractions,
models of what is or what could be, which we
imagine and share with others.
Ideally, the design process begins in the lower-
Researching
Interpret Abstract
Prototyping
Model of
what “is”
suggest
Model of
what
“could be”
Describe Concrete
distilled to
manifest as
What “is”
What
“could be”
Existing – Implicit
(Current)
Preferred – Explicit
(Future)
Analysis-synthesis bridge model
left quadrant with observation and investigation—
an inventory (or description) of the current situation. As the process moves forward, it moves
to the upper-left quadrant. We make sense of
research by analysis, filtering data we collect
to highlight points we decide are important or
using tools we’re comfortable with to sort, priori-tize, and order. We frame the current situation,
but move out of the strictly concrete. We define
the problem. We interpret. Analysis begins as
thoughtful reflection on the present and contin-
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