This document outlines different methods for evaluating design, including the Five Ws and an H method, and the Form, Function, Significance method. It explains that design evaluation is important to understand how designs affect people, identify ineffective designs, and increase appreciation for good design. Key aspects to evaluate include a design's purpose, how well it fulfills its function, its visual form and influences, and its meanings and impacts. Fully evaluating designs requires understanding the design process and user perspectives.

1. ASU – Ain Shams University
Faculty of Engineering
Department of Architectural Engineering
ARC 122: History & Theory of Architecture
Fall 2017
Instructor: Dr. Yasser Mahgoub
Lecture 3 - DESIGN EVALUATION FUNDAMENTALS

2. Topics
• Alternatives’ assessment
• Design Critique
• Design Evaluation

3. Design evaluation is an important activity because we
all need to evaluate the appropriateness of design on
a daily basis.
When we sit in a chair, we check to see if it is
structurally sound so it will safely support our weight.
We also check to see that it is made well, so that it
will stand up to the use we are planning to give it, and
so we can assess whether it is worth the price being
asked for it.
Introduction

4. These are design decisions based on the evaluation
of performance, and whether the design in question
will deliver an acceptable level of performance.
Each field of design: urban design, landscape
architecture, architecture, interior, industrial, and
graphic design -- has specialized evaluation criteria
that can be applied to it alone.
However, there are also general evaluation criteria
that can be applied across all of these fields.
Introduction

5. Alternatives Assessment

6. Design Critique
• The design critique is a method
used by the designer and
his/her colleagues to evaluate a
design at different stages in its
development process.
• The method typically evaluates
design options being explored
during development against
initial project criteria.

7. Design Critique
• In most cases we are not aware of to the original
design criteria the designer used.
• However, many of these criteria are obvious or
implicit in the finished work of design.

8. Design Critique
• Even when the exact criteria the designer worked
from are not known, it is both possible and necessary
for us to formulate what we think and feel the
proper criteria of judgment to be and to apply
these as best as we can.

10. Five Ws and an H
This method seems simple at first, but can become
more complicated and involved as one tries to apply it.
The "Five Ws and an H" stand for specific words
which trigger the asking of more and more detailed
questions.
The questions are:
• Who • What
• Where • When
• Why • How

11. WHO is the design for?
• That is, who is the "end user"?
• Is there one or many different users?
• If the work of design is a chair, does the chair meet
the various needs of the user, or different users?
• If the end user is an elderly person, perhaps the chair
should be especially easy to exit, taking the least
amount of energy to lift oneself up and out of it.

12. WHAT is the purpose of the design?
WHAT is it meant to do or accomplish?
• Sticking with the example of the chair, its primary
purpose is to support a sitter. If it is a lounge chair it
may be meant not only to support a person but to do
so in a manner which is comfortable for extended
periods of time.

13. WHERE and WHEN is it meant to be
used?
• Again, if the work of design is a chair, the context of
use is very important. If a chair is meant to be used at
the beach, it should probably be light weight and
portable, like folding chairs with a wood frame and a
canvas sling that conforms to different body sizes and
shapes.

14. WHY was it created?
Why does it look and function the way it
does?
• Asking WHY causes us to consider not only the
user's need, but the designer's and client's
motivations as well.

15. WHY was it created?
Why does it look and function the way it
does?
• If a manufacturer's motivation to make a chair is only
to make money, this might explain why the
materials are cheap, or the design copies another
design rather than being original and fresh.
• Asking WHY it looks and functions the way it does
might cause us to compare it to other chairs.

16. HOW does it function, use materials, etc.?
• Asking HOW requires us to examine the design
carefully, often comparing it to similar designs. The
question, "HOW does it use materials?," in the case
of a chair, might lead us to assess how ecologically
responsible it is in the type of wood it uses, how
the chair is dealt with at the end of its life cycle (can
its materials be recycled and reused, disposed of
safely, etc.).

17. Five Ws and an H Conclusion
• The value of this method of evaluation is that the
"Five Ws and an H" are easy to remember, and
can be applied to virtually any type of design: an
architectural or urban environment, a product, a piece
or system of graphic communication.
• It is a very flexible method because it is non-
directive, requiring the evaluator to apply the
trigger word in an appropriate way.
• Very often it requires research, because although
many of the questions may be answered in a
preliminary way, they usually force us to gather more
information to give a complete answer.

18. Form, Function, Significance
• This method of evaluation looks at three overlapping
dimensions of design: its visual FORM, its intended
FUNCTION or functional performance, and its various
forms of meaning and SIGNIFICANCE.
(Visual)
FORM
SIGNIFICANCE
(Meaning)
(Intended)
FUNCTION

19. Form, Function, Significance
Interpreting and evaluating works of design is important because the
majority of our modern world is designed. Design surrounds us
in the places we live and work, the products and objects we use, and
the things we read. These works of design can make our lives better
or worse, depending on how appropriately they are designed. It is
therefore important that we know how to evaluate works of design so
as to:
• understand how works of design affect us
• guard ourselves against ineffective or even dangerous design
• become more informed and demanding consumers and users of
design
• increase our appreciation and enjoyment of design

20. Form, Function, Significance
• One goal of design evaluation is to get beyond a first
impression where one simply "likes" or "dislikes" a
work of design.
• The aim is to go the next step to understand why the
designer made the design decisions he or she did,
and to assess the appropriateness of those choices.

21. Form, Function, Significance
• With practice, you will find that you can appreciate
works of design which you might not initially like
because you now understand the logic and merits of
the design's form, function, and significance.

22. Design Evaluation Criteria
• What is the design's function of purpose?
• How is this function fulfilled?
• What is the origin of this function?
FUNCTION
(Visual)
FORM
SIGNIFICANCE
(Meaning)
(Intended)
FUNCTION

23. Design Evaluation Criteria
• What is the design's formal (visual) logic and
"vocabulary"?
• What is influencing this form?
• What is the genealogy of this form?
FORM
(Visual)
FORM
SIGNIFICANCE
(Meaning)
(Intended)
FUNCTION

24. Design Evaluation Criteria
• What is the design's perceived significance or meaning?
• What is the design's general significance?
• What is the design's historical significance?
• Does the design carry symbolic meaning?
• What is the design's impact?
SIGNIFICANCE
(Visual)
FORM
SIGNIFICANCE
(Meaning)
(Intended)
FUNCTION

25. As simple as these questions may at first appear, the
ability to answer them confidently requires a good deal
of information, much of which requires special
knowledge.
For example, to answer even the first question, "What is
the design's purpose?," one would ideally know the
client's and designer's intentions (represented in the
project "brief"), as well as how those intentions were
modified as the project developed and trade off
decisions had to be made.
CONCLUSION

26. One would ideally also know how the different
audiences and users of the design responded to it.
• Did they perceive the purpose as being the same
as the designer intended?
• Was the purpose satisfactorily fulfilled for the
different user audiences?
As you can see, these can be very difficult questions to
answer without user surveys, etc.
CONCLUSION

27. However, just because all questions cannot be
answered with complete confidence does not mean
that one should not ask them!
Partial answers are possible, and can be quite
illuminating.
What is perhaps most important is understanding that
many factors inform the design process, and that
cultivating the ability to ask the right questions is the
first step to gaining critical insight into design.
CONCLUSION