Between transient constructs and persistent structures: designing systems in action
On-line observation and tracking of design processes reveal that design practices often display surprising features that defy our understanding, descriptions, and planning capabilities. Systems tend to be fragmented, untidy and unpredictable, often turning the designers' setting and practice into a "swamp". Drawing on stories of system development projects the author highlights the role of transient constructs as dynamic carriers of knowledge and effective vehicles for sensemaking. Transient constructs help resolve the dynamic tension between stability and change in design processes. On the one hand, given their unfinished and makeshift character, they allow for variability, online experimentation, and cognitive transactions; on the other hand, they may occasionally coalesce into more stable and persistent structures, which are continuously reconfigured by a never ending activity of bricolage. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
transient constructs sensemaking bricolage design in action learning