Leading figures in this movement in the UK were J. Christopher Jones at the University of Manchester and L. Bruce Archer at the Royal College of Art.
At the end of the 1960s two influential, but quite different works were published: Herbert A. Simon's The Sciences of the Artificial and J. Christopher Jones's Design Methods.
These process models usually comprise a number of phases or stages, beginning with a statement or recognition of a problem or a need for a new design and culminating in a finalised solution proposal.
[27] In the engineering design process systematic models tend to be linear, in sequential steps, but acknowledging the necessity of iteration.
In industrial and product design, process models tend to comprise a sequence of stages of divergent and convergent thinking.
[29] Nigel Cross outlined eight stages in a process of engineering product design, each with an associated method: Identifying Opportunities - User Scenarios; Clarifying Objectives - Objectives Tree; Establishing Functions - Function Analysis; Setting Requirements - Performance Specification; Determining Characteristics - Quality Function Deployment; Generating Alternatives - Morphological Chart; Evaluating Alternatives - Weighted Objectives; Improving Details - Value Engineering.
The purpose of the Society is to promote "the study of and research into the process of designing in all its many fields" and is an interdisciplinary group with many professions represented.
In the USA, a similar Design Methods Group (DMG) was also established in 1966 by Horst Rittel and others at the University of California, Berkeley.
A group interested in design methods and theory in architecture and engineering formed at MIT in the early 1980s, including Donald Schön, who was studying the working practices of architects, engineers and other professionals and developing his theory of reflective practice.
The Ulm school established a significant partnership with the German consumer products company Braun through their designer Dieter Rams.
J. Christopher Jones began his approach to systematic design as an ergonomist at the electrical engineering company AEI.
L. Bruce Archer developed his systematic approach in projects for medical equipment for the UK National Health Service.