One Thing is Certain in Design: Design is Uncertain

Abstract

The uncertainty in design is rooted in the nature of the design problem: the recursive evolution of design problem along with design solutions and related design knowledge (Zeng, 2004; Zeng & Cheng, 1991; Zeng & Gu, 1999). Design uncertainty takes many forms; one most acknowledged form is its unpredictability in that the future decisions are uncertain in its behaviour, in its value, and in its reliability; another uncertainty comes from misunderstanding in design communications in that people may have different perceptions for the same received information (Nguyen & Zeng, 2017; Tan et al., 2016); the third one is resulted from the imperfect understanding of a design situation.