States Not Stages
What does design require beyond process adherence? A series examining evaluative judgement, cybernetic traditions, and the structural conditions that determine whether iteration is productive or merely fast.
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States Not Stages: On Process Reification, Cybernetic Traditions, and the Construction of State Spaces
February 25, 2026
Jaimes Nel published a post this week - "From GPS to Map & Compass" - proposing what he calls the IO Loop: a model of design and innovation that replaces linear stages with recursive loops between...
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The Compass Unpacked: Seven Accounts of Evaluative Capacity in Design
February 25, 2026
The previous post explored why design process becomes what Jaimes Nel (2026) calls GPS. Nel's argument is that models like the Double Diamond, originally intended as orientational maps, hardened into...