Design: Collapsing and Releasing
William Blaze in reviewing John Thackara’s In the Bubble:
[D]esign is the process of bounding and prioritizing around a particular set of focuses. Most design decisions are directed actions that collapse our possibilities, guiding our focus. Often they open up new possibilities too, but only within a particular set of bounds. Picking up a hammer for instance reduces what our hand can do greatly. But it also opens up the possibility of driving in nails, breaking stone and shaping metal. This is a repeated cycle, collapse and release, a process that guides and sometimes directs us in actions.