IF THIS THEN THAT Broken Linear Logic. Rethinking and Representing the Design Process

Since its origins, the discipline of Design has developed in close connection with technological progress, trying to adapt its processes, approaches and methodologies. What we are questioning is how much Design has actually been successful in converging towards a disciplinary model suitable to the most recent technological evolutions such as AI and data-driven approaches, and, first of all, how much the way of thinking of designers has changed in this direction. Through an evaluation of design approaches, methodologies and processes from an historical point of view, the aim of this paper is to surface the misalignment between contemporary design processes logic and the linearity of its common representations, due to recent technological advancements. In fact, the representation of a process affects the epistemology of the process itself. This contribution presents on-going research based on literature review and mapping of contemporary design processes structures and representations, in order to define some good attempts and practices useful for building more reliable representations of design processes able to deal with challenges in a highly-technologically advanced present.