Judgment
Updated on Jan 6th 1998

 

What one acquires here is not a technique: one learns correct judgments. There are also rules, but they do not form a system, and only experienced people can apply them right. Unalike calculating-rules, what is most difficult here is to put this indefiniteness, correctly and unfalsified, into words."

    Ludvig Wittgenstein, "Philosophical Investigations", II,xi.

Design is about making judgments on how to create order out of chaos. It is a process led by intention and guided by judgment. Making judgments in design is not a question of finding or calculating the true and only correct answer, and it is not a question of personal taste and preferences. Design judgments can not be verified or proven, they have the quality of being good or bad design, instead of being right or wrong. It is an activity that requires a kind of design wisdom, a design knowledge - phronesis. It is a knowledge based on the designer's frame of reference (worldview). There are no rational Guarantors in design.