Dear Rosen,
When you ask "what is design for? " I see two questions:
1. what is to design for?; and
2. what is designing for?
but I think they both have the same answer.
To design is for people and designing is for people.
Richard Buchanan has already pointed to this, with
his reference to user centred design, and Chris Rust,
commenting on the not so accessible Web page of
James Whitehead [http://jameswhitehead.org], gives
a good example of what can happen when the
designer fails to understand that designing is for
people.
To say that "people" is the answer to your question
(in both the forms I see) is simple to do, but, as much
designing today shows us, seems much harder to
appreciate and do in practice.
A proper understanding and practice of this first
principle (to use Richard Buchana's way of putting it)
that to design and designing are for people is, I think,
a basic responsibility of all designers that should be
evident in any and all designing that they ever do.
Best regards,
Tim Smithers
Donostia / San Sebastián
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