Design Thinking

Based on the sources given, and in thinking of this new time and year of 2008 with evolving design as well as the technology that is used in order to communicate design, the idea of the ?consumer? or ?user? is indefinitely changing into one that is gaining more power to interactivity with design communication. To me, it seems as though the user is becoming so involved in the process of design, that (like in the Figure 1 diagram) their role can only increase in importance as the years progress. Ultimately, the consumer or user is the target of why we design. We design to create a product that the user can adapt to their lives. For 2008, I feel that the current term for the user, co-creator, is moving into a more superior role, and aiming more towards the ?initiator?. Being the co-creator means that the user wants to interact with the designer, be a part of the process to which their product can be as good as it can be. While an initiator is along the same lines, the user now becomes the person that originates the initial ideas for the product. Us as the designers listen to their ideas, abide by them, and produce the product around their ideas, so that it fits to exactly what they want. Of course in the next five years, with the constantly growing technology, this is going to become more and more doable, but it could go as far as us simply designing and producing exactly around what the user needs, and fixing problems that the user sees with the product from the previous five years, and thus becoming a constant cycle. Because of this, I think that this ?initiator? of ideas, could turn into the problem solver in five years. These possible terms for the user for this year and the next five years could easily be a stretch in the sense that it starts to make it sound like designers will not do anything but simply produce according to the user?s needs, which may happen to an extent, but we will always need the design aspect to sell the product, as well as abide by the users ideas, and make them better, so that our role is still of the utmost importance. However, communication design in this age is about the user and their wants, their needs, and what we can do to help simplify and better their problems at hand.

Reference:
http://www.mech.uwa.edu.au/DANotes/design/why/why.html

Posted by Betsy Sherertz on March 11, 2008 at 06:06 PM EDT #

Founded on the sources given and the sources sought, there is no denying the title for the consumer, client, or customer has changed over the years and will continue to change. As the world becomes more and more technological literate and capable, I believe the naming of the client will go from co-creator to instigator or coworker. The coworker will want more and more input while designing for them. As a coworker, they would and will have an integral part in the process and how the designer develops their design. Stefan Sagmeister said that print media will die at some point and anything that can be animated will be animated; anything that can be interactive can be interactive. It?s to this degree that I think coworker will be the best choice of wording for the co-creator over the next 5 years or integrated soon. As, let?s say?websites, become more and more interactive, the coworker will want to mold the experience into something they want a hand in. They would have undoubtedly seen other websites from other companies, knowing what they want, and knowing how to accomplish it. One example of this is the popularity of Facebook and Myspace. They allow the owner of a page free access and customization to their site. There are a few strict guidelines that they must follow but the person is taking control of the design of their website more than ever before. The co-creator changing to instigator is also very important. Instead of wanting to work alongside the designer, they will start design process with a project in mind, exactly how they want it. The designer?s role will lessen in the ideating and greaten in the production of the instigator?s idea, like saying if the design will work, what one can do to make it better, etc. Now and in the next 5 years I believe that the co-creator will become much more into a coworker as the technological age continues to grow and the upcoming generation of people ? business people, bands, regular people, everyone ? will know and understand this new technology and be able to comprehend the more possibilities and capabilities available.
http://www.sagmeister.com/students3.html

Posted by Jonathan Michael Stephens on March 12, 2008 at 09:35 PM EDT #

Since the introduction of the internet into our lives, communication and instant feedback is made accessable to everyone. Designers are having to deal with picky clients who want daily e-mails about the progress of the job. In the spring of 2007 I interned at Toky Branding and Design in St. Louis and I got a glimpse of what a client wants out of a designer. After watching and expiriencing work with United Way at Toky, I think that the people we design for should be called participants. The clients that wish to have something designed for them are putting special care into whatever they are displaying or selling. Their product is like their child. The participant wants to constantly check up on it, watch its progress and add to its growth. They want to be a part of the process because it?s exciting. In my time with Toky Branding and Design I watched the ad campaign for United Way take shape and all along the way the representative for United Way was hovering over the shoulders of the designers. The designers were constantly adapting to the participant?s demands. The participant from United Way even made one of the employees cry. The designers were constantly having to send the participant, via e-mail or letter, ideas, film negatives, anything that had been completed relating to the United Way job. I think the presence of the internet made it easier for this participant to get into the heads of the desginers and cause them so much stress. With the presence of the internet, the participant could be there every step of the way in the design process, curving it at times to their desire.

Posted by Meghan O'Brien on March 13, 2008 at 10:58 AM EDT #

We as visual communicators growing in a discipline and community of designers must be aware of where we have been to continue on our path of growth, and the reference is not in a historical context, but rather a personal context. Keeping sensitive to the roles that we have played in the past and the roles we strive to play in the future, I feel the metamorphosis is more accurately diagramed with overlaps, rather than uniform stops and starts.

During Starck's lecture at the TED 2007 conference, he describes us as "mutants"; complicated forms evolved from lesser life forms, and continuing on an unplanned path today. I believe that much like this path we as mutated life forms have evolved, we as designers/users/citizens will continue to fill more are more roles. It is not that with our new roles we wash our hands of any responsibility of old, but rather we take on more responsibility. Starck uses "field of vision" in the sociological context as an example, but I feel this example is completely appropriate in the design world as well. Once we allow ourselves to broaden our scope of vision, we begin to perfect the roles that we have played in the past. It is not that we have become "smarter" or "better" than the consumer once we take on the role of the designer/creator, but we rather become more sensitive to different needs.

So, who is to say that the correct path to co-creator must follow a rigid 12-Step program? Looking closer to that jagged line I referenced earlier we can view overlaps of participant and adapter, customer and participant, even technocrat and user. I believe that these roles can often be all played at once, and maybe that is the direction we headed. While paying respect to the idea that the co-creator is an amalgamation of all audiences, I believe that it is totally acceptable to revert back to roles of the past while maintaing a forward perspective as "comsumocrat".

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/197

Posted by Justin LaRosa on March 13, 2008 at 12:01 PM EDT #

Throughout the history of design (and the history of life as we know it for that matter), nearly every single conceivable act performed by any species has been out of simple, selfish motivation. Selfishness, in this sense, can be interpreted as "concerns with one's own interests". For this reason alone, one could logically determine that all design is done to please the designer, even if it happens to please or stimulate others in the process.

In learning the practice of design, one becomes aware of certain degrees of allotted freedom in creativity. When a designer is given a "large window" in which her creativity is allowed to run free, it is most common to see this individual conceive something that pleases her. One can argue all he wants as to whether or not the design is "good", however, the motivations behind its concept will always be selfish. The designer, a creative person, has been allowed creative freedom and she has used this allowance at least to a certain degree, simply because she wanted to. One might argue that maybe this individual did not indulge in the selfish process of design and created something simply for it to appear professional and "sell able". Once again, selfish motivation is evidently present as the designer is attempting to garner attention, not necessarily for something she "likes" terribly, but rather something she finds her audience will approve of.

When designers are slaves to the companies they work for (in a creative sense), and are not allowed any freedom in their projects, their motivation behind design is still selfish. After all, with the job putting food on the table, even if one's creative ability is at the complete mercy of another individual, the fact remains, the act of creation is a selfish one as it provides external wealth. Even if this individual was to one day decide he didn't want that particular job any longer and start designing "garbage", it would still be out of the selfish reason of wanting to possibly be fired. Every human act and every design process is a selfish one, there is simply no way around it.

One might think that designing a poster for a specific social cause or charity as a graphic designer might be an act of selflessness. While it may undeniably be a good deed, it still comes from selfish motivation. Even if the motivation for designing this poster was nothing more than to feel good about oneself, the desire for that feeling of goodness can be interpreted as selfish desire.

There is no way to avoid designing for oneself. Even if you take no pay and seek no recognition while designing something you find to be undesirable and uninteresting, even painful to create, the only conceivable reason you could be doing that is to try to convince yourself you are not selfish which is a contradictory action as you are doing something, for your own sake, in attempting to complete this process.

The bottom line is this. All designs is in some way or another are born to benefit the designer in some way.

If one earns commission, that money provides motivation. Pleasing, affecting and influencing the audience, the people the design is created to reach is NEARLY always a factor in the design process, however, it can not and will not ever be as prevalent as the many motivations associated with concept of designing selfishly. It's impossible.

http://www.objectivistcenter.org/cth--406-FAQ_Virtue_Selfishness.aspx

*On a side note, I hate Ayn Rand and generally disagree with the other opinions on this website. I am by no means advocating for any human to completely cave in to his or her ambitions and ignore the needs of the rest of society, I am not a fascist.

Posted by Nick Romanos on March 14, 2008 at 01:18 PM EDT #

Based on my own experience and reading this issue I feel that the relationship between the designer and the once "consumer" turned into a kind of partnership, similar to a "co-creator". The designer finds projects, problems, and ideas from observing, researching, and communicating with the users and consumers... or just the people in general. But why not from the world as a system itself as well, why is the user only a human? Humans are the ones that may communicate verbally, but what about the world communicating to us today about it's state... global warming, toxins, and our natural resources slowly disappearing? For example, major cities have many things that are poorly designed, and these are the perfect tasks for much of the "green" "eco" design of today. I feel that in the context of today's world, designers are not only designing for the people but also for the environment that they live in. It is an issue that we cannot ignore or forget.

Therefore, not all design is necessarily for a particular group, user, or consumer... but to enhance the quality of life, to better a skill or lifestyle. The relationship in design between the designer and the people or environment is a partnership of understanding perspectives and feedback. The designer needs a "co-partner" to understand and "see" the issue from different angles while the "co-partner" needs a designer because they understand elements of design. The designer spear heads the design process but is inspired by ideas of the people, research, previous designs, and predictions of the future. One might bring up the issue, how does the environment provide feedback like a human? My answer would be, time. And now we are at the point when time is telling us to make that change. All in all this process is to improve something existing or to create something new, to increase the quality of life for the people and the environment.

In simple words the design and the function must mesh, so why not call it a partnership between designers and the people/environment. The designers know the process and will use the methods they have learned to satisfy their eye, while taking in consideration the needs of the people (more perspectives) to create a partnership that may satisfy more.
This process has for sure come a long way from the idea that designer designs and user or consumer either likes or dislikes.

We have already begun the cycle and created so much, this has been thrown at us. So now as designers we need to really search to make sure that the "user" we are targeting is not only to increase the lives of the people BUT ALSO the environment where they live. We cannot turn around the cycle, so this is the perfect time to redefine our ideas of a "user", and start thinking of the partnerships we must create.

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/007765.html
http://www.cooper.com/insights/journal_of_design/articles/design_research_why_you_need_i_1.html

Posted by Elizabeth P Peters on March 14, 2008 at 02:06 PM EDT #

The evolution of design over particularly the last decade has created the need for these new ways of labeling those who interact with design. And while these are very useful new categories, I don't think that any of them have necessarily replaced the labels that have gone before. The old categories continue to exist, even if their novelty and importance have have receded. For instance while the emergence of online 'zines have created a new medium for amateurs who want to create content on topics that excite them, they have not replaced traditional 'audience' oriented magazines. Another example is in video gaming. Developers have opened up new ways for gamers to create game characters, level designs, and even entire games, and online communities have emerged around the sharing, and 'group-creating' aspects of this phenomenon. But even with this new flexibility, many, perhaps the majority, of gamers continue to be simply 'users' of professionally developed games.

So while the emergence of highly interactive design is very exciting, and has broadened our understanding of what design is, I think there will continue to be a market for professionally produced, 'audience' or 'user' oriented design.

Source: http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/conf2001/papers/pearce.html

Posted by Nick Schlax on March 14, 2008 at 03:57 PM EDT #