Investigation of infra-structures of design driven innovation; a review on application of hermeneutics in design

This paper is composed based on the assumption that in order to reach creativity in design, methods of meaning creation and new concepts in humanities should be considered as important as methods of creativity in technical viewpoints. Authors claim that lack of fruitful discussion and dialog between Humanities and technical science in Design had generated a problematic obstacle to creativity in Design. As engineers are trying to understand what should be done, designers are expected to clarify what could be done. There were many attempts in order to generate creativity, especially creativity in design as a logical and predictable process. The problem was that a sort of logic coming from experimental science was imposed on design process and there were much less attempts in order to generate a design logic which would refer to itself and is independent. That was the reason why design process has become so problematic. In this situation, the interaction between humanities and technical science becomes very important. Some design researchers would try to refer to humanities as a source of inspiration.  However, new problems emerge while humanities are considered too complex and with lack of practical result, technical studies are considered as too simple, having lack of lasting and effective result in confronting real wicked problems. There were few attempts in confronting such approaches, such as pattern recognition, designing with precedents and metaphor in Design; we believe that, the infrastructures of Design-driven innovation would be opened up for the Persian reader, so that he/she could adapt western hermeneutics concepts with the cultural concepts and elements; although such a comparison would need another procedure. After introducing the concept of hermeneutics and its historical evolution and application in design process, methods and models generated from such an approach would be introduced. From hermeneutical approach, two models of narration and metaphor would be extracted. Model of metaphor would be discussed, whether from the work of previous designers or from findings of authors. Finally, the model of narration, narrative structures and previous models of discussion would be discussed generally. The value of this research is for the designers who want to think and create regarding the limitations of the market, while they tend to keep their creativity and wish to generate a manageable and researchable model for design creativity. However, there is also an infrastructural value for such research. The underlying assumption is that if human knowledge could be divided into epistemology and technology; technology is considered to have three independent cultures of approaching: Engineering, Architecture and Design. While there have been considerable attempts to identify design as an independent culture of interaction with technology, the scientific and theoretical framework of considering design as an autonomous culture of technical interaction has still a long way to be developed. Terms such as design thinking and infrastructural approaches such as hermeneutics applied in design would be quite helpful to absorb the independent scientific basis of Design knowledge.