What would be my 'foothold' for design? - Gal, S. (1996) “Footholds for design”

The author, Gal, S.(1996), believes people learn by doing or making something. He tells about Ray’s experience of modeling a bridge.

Ray participate in the design competition which is about making model bridges. He has string, different types of wood, and glue. The bridge should pass through test load and most importantly he has only 3 weeks.

Ray uses top-down process at first. He decides to build the bridge with a clear concept. He goes to the library, reads books, watches some movies, and draws some bridges. Ray prepares 6 designs for a bridge and uses Growltiger to reflect on his design. Only two survived the test. After using Growltiger, Ray realizes that bottom up approach which is concerned about putting small pieces together is also important. Now he communicate with the materials in hands. He wants to use all the materials. And he experiments with materials and learn a lot from the process.

Growltiger worked as image foothold and helped Ray construct his bridge.

• Principle : We need 'foothold'  
• What kinds of footholds do I have - CMS, other websites, authoring tools and MOOC sites
• My approach to designing my site - I start without blue print and correct as I am progressing
• My approach is bottom up but I need top down approach, a big picture - blue print