Nigel Cross

Nigel Cross studied architecture at the University of Bath 1961-1966. He then took an MSc course in Industrial Design Technology, run by the leading design methodologist John Christopher Jones, at the University of Manchester Institute of Science of Technology (1967).Cross, N. (2018) ‘Developing Design as a Discipline’, Journal of Engineering Design, 29, pp. 691-708. In 1974 he also completed a PhD at UMIST in computer aided design.

Nigel Cross began his design research in the 1960s with studies of "simulated" computer-aided design systems where the purported simulator was actually a human operator, using text and graphical communication via CCTV. Cross later referred to this as a kind of Reverse Turing test;{{cite journal |doi=10.1162/07479360152681083 |jstor=1511919 |title=Can a Machine Design? |journal=Design Issues |volume=17 |issue=4 |pages=44–50 |year=2001 |last1=Cross |first1=Nigel |s2cid=57562395 |url=http://oro.open.ac.uk/3275/1/Can_a_machine_design.pdf }} in interaction design this kind of study later became known as a Wizard of Oz experiment. He also applied early forms of protocol analysis to these experiments. His PhD on ‘Human and Machine Roles in Computer Aided Design’ was expanded into the book The Automated Architect (1977), which was critical of some of the computer-aided architectural design work of that time.

In 1971, Cross co-organised the first major conference of the Design Research Society (DRS), on Design Participation. He continued to play significant roles in DRS, and was its President from 2006-2017.

Early interests in design methods led to an edited book of foundational papers, Developments in Design Methodology (1984) and a textbook of Engineering Design Methods (1989, now in a 5th edition).

Subsequently his research interests turned more to design cognition or design thinking. In 1991 Cross established, with colleagues at Delft University of Technology, the international series of Design Thinking Research Symposia (DTRS).Cross, N. 'A brief history of the Design Thinking Research Symposia series', Design Studies, Vol. 57, pp. 160-164, 2018. ISSN 0142-694X The second DTRS meeting at Delft (1994) laid the foundations for much subsequent work on protocol and other studies of design activity.{{cite book |editor1-first=Nigel |editor1-last=Cross |editor2-first=Henry |editor2-last=Christiaans |editor3-first=Kees |editor3-last=Dorst |title=Analysing Design Activity | publisher = Wiley | year = 1996 | isbn = 978-0-471-96060-7}}

In 1982 Cross published a journal article 'Designerly Ways of Knowing',{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/0142-694X(82)90040-0 |title=Designerly ways of knowing |journal=Design Studies |volume=3 |issue=4 |pages=221–7 |year=1982 |last1=Cross |first1=Nigel |url=http://oro.open.ac.uk/39253/8/Designerly%20Ways%20of%20Knowing%20DS.pdf }} drawing on design research to show Design as having its own intellectual and practical culture as a basis for education, and contrasting it with cultures of Science and Arts & Humanities. This was a clarification of the idea that "There are things to know, ways of knowing them and ways of finding out about them that are specific to the design area". The paper established the concept of design as a discipline, now widely adopted in modern design theory, education and practice.Rodgers, P. A. and Brember, C. (2016) 'The Concept of the Design Discipline'. Dialectic. 1(1) 19-38. https://dx.doi.org/10.3998/dialectic.14932326.0001/104Christensen, B. & Ball, L. (2019) 'Building a discipline: Indicators of expansion, integration and consolidation in design research across four decades'. Design Studies. 65, 18-34.

In subsequent papers, Cross continued to identify and clarify the cognitive and practical skills underlying design thinking,Cross, Nigel (1999) 'Natural intelligence in design'. Design Studies, 20 (1), 25-39.Cross, Nigel (2001) 'Design Cognition: Results from protocol and other empirical studies of design activity'. In C. Eastman, M. McCracken and W. Newstatter (eds.) Design Knowing and Learning: Cognition in Design Education, Elsevier, Oxford, pp. 79-103.{{ISBN|0080438687}} and the nature of expertise in design.Cross, Nigel (2004) 'Expertise in design: an overview'. Design Studies, 25 (5), 427-441.Cross, Nigel (2018) 'Expertise in Professional Design' in K. Anders Ericsson, R. Hoffman, A. Kozbelt, A. M. Williams (eds.) Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance (2nd Edition), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK and New York USA. pp. 327-388. {{ISBN|9781107137554}}

With Kees Dorst, Cross advanced the concept of 'co-evolution' in design,Kees Dorst & Nigel Cross (2001) 'Creativity in the design process: co-evolution of problem–solution'. Design Studies, 22 (5) 425-437. observing how designers progress a project by developing the problem space and solution space in parallel, with activities in each 'space' cross-fertilising the other. Understanding "how designers think and work" has been a significant theme in his writings, culminating in the book Design Thinking (2011, now in a 2nd edition).

• Design Participation (editor), Academy Editions, London, 1972.
• The Automated Architect: human and machine roles in design, Pion Ltd., London, 1977. {{ISBN|0850860571}}
• Developments in Design Methodology (editor), John Wiley and Sons Ltd., Chichester, 1984. {{ISBN|0471102482}}
• Research in Design Thinking (co-editor with K. Dorst and N. Roozenburg), Delft University Press, Delft, 1992. {{ISBN|9062757960}}
• Analysing Design Activity (co-editor with H. Christiaans and K. Dorst), John Wiley & Sons Ltd., Chichester, 1996. {{ISBN|0471960608}}
• Designerly Ways of Knowing, Springer, London, 2006. {{ISBN|1846283000}}; {{ISBN|9781849965736}}
• Designerly Ways of Knowing, Birkhauser, Basel, Switzerland, 2007. {{ISBN|9783764384845}}
• Engineering Design Methods: strategies for product design (fifth edition), John Wiley and Sons Ltd., Chichester and New York, 2021. {{ISBN|9781119724377}}
• Design Thinking: understanding how designers think and work (second edition), Bloomsbury, Oxford and New York, 2023. {{ISBN|9781350305069}}; {{ISBN|9781350305021}}

• 2005. Lifetime Achievement Award, Design Research Society.{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/j.destud.2005.10.001 |title=Professor Nigel Cross - Lifetime Achievement Award 2005 |journal=Design Studies |volume=27 |pages=1–4 |year=2006 }}
• 2007. Elected Honorary Fellow, The Design Society.{{cite web |last1=Design Society |title=List of Honorary Fellows |url=https://www.designsociety.org/15/Honorary+fellows |website=The Design Society}}
• 2012. Institution of Engineering Designers Trophy award for outstanding contributions to design education and research.{{cite web|title=IED Award|url=http://journal-download.co.uk/digitalmagazines//edr/edr01sep2012fulledr.pdf|website=IED Journal|accessdate=5 February 2017|pages=13}}

{{Reflist}}

• Open University staff entry at: https://web.archive.org/web/20181007111122/http://www9.open.ac.uk/mct-ei/people/nigel.cross
• Design Studies journal: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/design-studies

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Category:Living people

Category:Design educators

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Category:Academics of the Open University

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Category:Alumni of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology

Category:1942 births