Sunday, March 22, 2009

(at least) Four kinds of Time in Design

The measured time for completion: How long does it take to have (and execute) a good idea? Billable hours vs. bustop insights, see also: Northcote Parkinson and the Cult of Done ...

The narrative time of composition: an object as an order of conceptual operations. eg: 'first there was a surface that was pushed up and pulled down to create space, apertures were sliced at three locations to connect an inside and an outside ... '

The built time of manufacture: actual assembly, with all the orchestration, staging and logistics attendant ...

The lived time of use, experience, and understanding.

All of these overlap and interfere (productively and destructively) with each other, but it's worth keeping track of what sort of time is unfolding or informing decisions at any given moment in the process.

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