Diamond (DDD) is started as introduced in "What If We Redesign The (Double) Design Diamond To Become Interweaved?" What if we redesign the Design Diamond?

The goal is to create new knowledge and explore how essential aspects of Design can be represented in a diamond form.

The resulting interweaved Design Diamond (iDD) provides an explanatory schema for design and design processes.

As such it can be used to explain and teach design and construct suitable design processes. It does not provide a complete explanatory schema but focuses on key aspects of design movements. The iDD is open-ended and interweaved with key elements of nearby fields such as problem-solving, innovation, and collaborative engineering.

In step 1, we briefly look at the primary diamond shape. Step 2 defines what the diamond is about, and step 3 covers the boundary of what it is not. Step 4 lays the foundation for creating design processes through movements.

Step 1: Shape

In the first step, we shortly reflect on the shape of the diamonds in DDD.

The double design diamonds are constructed from two tilted squares. Here one must wonder how much meaning can be expressed by these simple shapes. It seems clear that after a while, the squares will sink under a load of excess meaning; that is, they become overloaded.

We can create a few more possibilities to anchor meanings by separating the tilted square into four triangles.

This simple manipulation opens up a window for attribution of meaning to:

• Left and Right
• Up and Down
• Space between Left and Right
• Space between Up and Down.

In the following steps, we will use these simple possibilities.

In the next step, we simplify, refocus, and center the diamond shape to a hard core, a talking point, to avoid too many meanings and weak simplification.

Here we assume that each diamond represents a well-defined talking point.

A talking point is a specific topic and a unit of consideration and deliberation. It is an allocation of attention with something in focus. A talking point can be formulated as a question to be asked, a story, a narrative, an idea, a theory, or anything else worth discussing and remembering.

A talking point can be raised in a conversation or argument intended as a base for discussion, especially one representing different points of view.

In design, we find natural talking points or themes of interrelated talking points, which all need to be addressed by movements in a design process. Examples include:

• mess
• challenge, problem,
• solution, ought-to-be,
• transition, benefit,
• affordance, features.

Now that we have defined the core and focus, we need to pay attention to aspects at the boundary of design and design efforts, framing, and the box.

A key part of design is the explicit exploration of boundaries. The interweaved Design Diamond includes a box that represents quite a few aspects at the boundary of design. The box can represent the following aspects:

• A frame for challenges, problems, and solutions that can be shifted through reframing.
• Thinking inside vs. outside the box.
• Conventional vs. creative work.
  The scope and coverage of design work.
• What is included and excluded.
• Freedom vs. Limitations.
• The boundary between the inside and outside.
• What to do and not do in the design effort.
• What is known vs. unknown.
• Where one falls off a talking point.
• What the talking point is vs. is-not about.
• Distinctions from other talking points.

This list provides only a few ways to think about frames and the box; there are many more.

In this step, we introduce a key element at the centre of design and design processes, moving.

The DDD is based on a too-simple geometry to be able to represent a full, flexible and rich design process. Therefore, we trim down the diamond to primarily represent movements or moves.

A move is a smaller pattern of behavior or routine found in design processes by which a group moves through its activities. As such, moves constitute parts of activities and activity spaces.

Design moves can be found in the works of Donald Schöns - Framing, Naming, Moving, Reflecting - and Roberts Briggs in the field of Collaborative Engineering, such as diverge, converge, understand, abstract, etcetera.

We introduce key moves from designerly ways of knowing and doing, such as diverge and converge, in the following steps.

Now that we have established the core of the interweaved Design Diamond, we shift focus to the addition of key design moves. Not all, but key moves since no diamond can represent all of design or design processes.

As always feedback and suggestions for improvement are always welcome.

Enjoy Anders