Design is utility and significance

Defined by John Heskett, a historian, this is a succinct way of saying that designed things should (1) exhibit pragmatism and (2) be simultaneously packed with expressive qualities

"Design is not just 'free-form experimentation' (art) and 'building a better mousetrap' (engineering). It's someplace in-between"Who is the Built World Built For? chapter in what can a body do

Transform man's environment and tools

The job of product design is to 'transform man's environment and tools and by extension man himself Found in Chair chapter in what can a body do

Victor Papnek

Design is imposing meaningful order

All people are designers. Design is a conscious effort to impose a meaningful orderFound in Introduction chapter in design justice (book)

Victor Papnek

Design is deliberative planning which prefigures our actions and making

Designing is fundamental to being human - we design that is to say we deliberately plan and scheme in ways which prefigure our actions and making. We design the world while our world acts back on us and designs us.Found in Introduction chapter in design justice (book)

Anne-Marie Willis

Design is a mode of knowledge production that is abductive and speculative

Design is abductive in that it is the best prediction given incomplete observations. It is speculative in that it envisions as well as manipulates the futureFound in Introduction chapter in design justice (book)

Sasha Constanza-Chock

Design as a noun and a verb

All humans design, not everyone gets paid to do so

Sasha Constanza-Chock

The contemporary use of the word design can fall into two categories:Found in Introduction chapter in design justice (book)

1. As a noun it is a "highly professional field of practice...a way of manipulating future objects and systems using specialized software"
2. As a verb, it is "a universal kind of human activity...an everyday use of traditional knowledge embedded in indigenous lifeways"

The politics of one world becoming the constraints on another

Design is the process by which the politics of one world becomes the constraints on anotherFound in Design Values chapter in design justice (book)

Fred Turner

Changing the problem to find the solution

Design can be seen as the iterative process of changing the problem to find the solutionFound in Design Narratives chapter in design justice (book)

Sasha Constanza-Chock

Changing existing conditions into preferred ones

Design offers the means to devise course of action aimed at changing existing conditions into preferred onesOut of the Studio and into the Flow of Socionatural Life chapter in designs for the pluriverse

Herbert Simon

A practice for things to attain desired functions and meanings

Design is a culture and a practice concerning how things ought to be in order to attain desired functions and meaningsOut of the Studio and into the Flow of Socionatural Life chapter in designs for the pluriverse

Ezio Manzini

A capacity to propose new sites as political

Design's capacity to propose new kinds of bodies, entities, and sites as politicalPaper xyz

Dominguz Rubio and Fogue

Design takes place at the edges of social theory

Design takes place at the edges of social theoryElements for a Cultural Studies of Design chapter in designs for the pluriverse

Arturo Escobar

Theories of power, theories of change, history and philosophy of technology, theories of making and designing, contextual studies are all relevant fields of study for design