Principles of Aristotle’s Poiesis as a Foundation for Human-Centered Engineering Design

Abstract

In order to improve design methodology and better utilize human-centered design (HCD) approaches, there is a need for an intellectual foundation to reconcile HCD with traditional design approaches. A method from Aristotle, called Poiesis, provides a useful basis for this while helping to relate engineering design to a general discipline of design. In this paper, we explain what Poiesis is in an engineering design context, and examine the similarities between current methods and this ancient approach. Current methodology is similar to different parts of Poiesis, but we propose that it can be improved by combining different existing methods using Poiesis as a framework for a more comprehensive, holistic approach.