The heat and flow characteristics in a parallel-flow heat exchanger were examined numerically to obtain its optimal design variables. A desirability function approach was introduced to optimize its performance with respect to the design parameters over the design domain. By varying the importance of heat transfer and pressure drop which are out put variables, the optimal values of the design parameters are examined. As a result, the us-age of the desirability function is very effective for the optimization of the design variables in a heat exchanger since the changes of optimal values are physically appropriate by varying the importance of each output variable.