ABSTRACT
Design is creativity deployed to a specific end (HM Treasury, 2005). It is a generic process of creating some new or improved product which:
is materially or logically possible to make;
is fit, or fitter than predecessors, for some specified principal purpose;
does not significantly interfere with subsidiary purposes or with wider requirements of social and economic life and the environment (adapted from Booch, 1993).
Design is a wide-ranging field. Besides the creation of three-dimensional products (the focus of this chapter) it covers the creation of the built environment (see Chapter 11 by Armitage in this volume), graphics, communication, systems and services; even procedures and social innovation. Design may include an engineering dimension but it is much more than just ‘technology’.