The ultimate object of design is form*. Form emerges where structure(1), function(2), and meaning(3) converge — and design is the act of bringing them into order.
Structure: How something is built. The logic of parts, the constraints of material, the order that holds. Structure determines what is possible and what is not. Structure is form as necessity.
Function: How something works and what it works for. The behavior, the use, the purpose, the problem it solves. Function binds form to the world of agents. Function is form in action.
Meaning: What something evokes. The intention behind it, the references it carries, the sense it makes, the world it belongs to. Meaning is form in relation.
*Alexander, C. (1964). Notes on the Synthesis of Form. Harvard University Press.
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