Creating a design process

Creating a design process :

I'm still not very sure how different a design process is from lots of other kinds of processes , or even that it's unique to the design field . To me, any well thought out process is the same as a design process . Or perhaps that's inherent in that design necessarily means that one has to think deeply and thoroughly.

So here's a summary to the design process I intend to employ for a new Jetty design .

1.     Firstly , know your area area of work, in this case the jetty. 

2.     Contextualize the problem . Something like a jetty can have multiple uses and multiple arenas of use  - different kinds of boats , weather conditions, water currents, pollution levels etc. The key then is to decide which context is to be focused on. In my case it was the jetty design of the MIT Boat Club in the Rajbaug campus . 

3.     At this point one reaches a two way junction in my design process. Two things have to be looked at . One is to think about the immediate requirements of  the jetty design. In other words, what does the jetty need to be ? The other is to explore everything it could be . The latter requires you to imagine and re imagine the scenario at hand . 

4.     Naturally with these two thought processes in mind you begin to ideate and come up with possible solutions. Your ideas can guide the research you decide to undertake. It needs to be expansive  research that looks in to engineering processes (Panama Canal ), materials , sci fi films , indigenous design etc, or it could be serendipitous . 

5.     After having done some research one can now look at what other solutions come to mind , or if the earlier solutions still hold. The ideation process continues . 

6.     At this point you may have a solution, which could be prototyped. Trials and testing, essentially 

7.     Completion of the testing and carrying out your solution. If it doesn't work out , you start over , get a new perspective.