Dear Professor Buchanan
Your question needs some reflection and I do look forward to your
comments as well.
Design for me is a long journey and in a recent lecture for my students
I had devised a model which I did mention on this list a few weeks ago.
You can see this model on my website at this link below and it is
accompanied with a voice file of my full description of the journey in
case you are interested.
<http://homepage.mac.com/ranjanmp/About_Design_Theory/FileSharing83.html>
The "Design Journey" downloads are at the bottom of that page.
However, I will give you a summary here since I could not define design
but I can try and explain it in the model of the journey. I speak of
design using a metaphor of casting a stone in the pond. The design
intentions are to achieve a goal and the first thoughts are in the form
of a perception that simultaneously triggers off an imagination(s) which
can only be seen or felt by the person doing the imagining. At this
stage it is internal to the person and we could call this person a
'designer'. I call this internal process 'inploration' since it
continues for quite some time internally through images and feelings as
well as sensory knowledge that is informed by touch, etc. before it
manifests itself as explorative offerings as sketches, models and field
contacts, all explorations in a meandering form of journey, and in the
process we gather insights along the way. It is these insights that give
us the conviction to act and make more tangible models both to test as
well as to prove the concept in search of support and approval from
those who can partner with making the design a reality, a manifestation
in the world, and if successful with a wider acceptance by the intended
users as well.
However, at the stage when the design is launched to market the designer
also looses control and the effects are no longer managed by the
designer alone since the other players take charge and multiple forces
start to act on the creation in the form in which it is manifested.
However, the designer has to still contend with the responsibility for
their creations and it here that the ethical dilemma would definitely
exist and I would be keen to hear your interpretation of this dilemma.
At the early stages we could call the models offered as design concepts,
not fully formed and manifested as yet, but at later stages the
specifications become more and more decided and the offering (object,
message, event , infrastructure or service as the case may be) gets more
and more differentiated from other similar offerings or alternatives and
it would take on a character of its own. When such an offering is fully
accepted by society it shapes culture especially when it is absorbed
into the fabric of that society and this is perhaps what I have meant by
the term "market" and also what was intended by Gui Bonsieppe, in his
table in the book, "Interface".
Yes, in this sense, design needs to be manifested in reality and find
acceptance otherwise it will remain a "design concept" or an "award
winning design" that was never produced or accepted by consumers and
users in the field. This tells me that peer approval alone does not
guarantee the success of a design but its acceptance by society does,
even if acceptance may take many years after offering is made.
I look forward to your interpretation and commentary on this view of design.
In my note to Thomas Rasmussen this morning I had described briefly our
explorations in the field study when we undertook our research on bamboo
in the Northeast of India. Now, many years later we have some concrete
expressions to show for all these explorations in the form of a series
of design offerings that we do believe will help local communities
change their own lives and employment potentials using our offerings of
both form and strategy that are embedded in our design offering, some
tangible and most of it intangible. take a look at some of these
products on show in Germany this month and I have given links to all our
projects on bamboo done over the past ten years or so on the recent post
on my blog at this link below: Our field research was done more than
twenty years ago.
<http://design-for-india.blogspot.com/2007/07/ifa-exhibitions-in-stuttgart-and-berlin>
So what I mean by market is not just the commercial market place that
are driven by corporate industry but also live spaces that are occupied
by society in the process of shaping culture and I do beileve that
design helps shape culture in its many manifestations, both at the small
and the significant change making moves that is determined by society
and not by the designer at all.
I hope that I have been able to convey my intended meaning here and I am
curious to hear your views. Thank you for your question.
With warm regards
M P Ranjan
from my office at NID
28 July 2007 at 7.00 pm IST
Prof M P Ranjan
Faculty of Design
Head, Centre for Bamboo Initiatives at NID (CFBI-NID)
Chairman, GeoVisualisation Task Group (DST, Govt. of India) (2006-2008)
National Institute of Design
Paldi
Ahmedabad 380 007 India
Tel: (off) 91 79 26623692 ext 1090
Tel: (res) 91 79 26610054
Fax: 91 79 26605242
email: [log in to unmask]
web site: http://homepage.mac.com/ranjanmp
web domain: http://www.ranjanmp.in
blog: <http://design-for-india.blogspot.com
Richard Buchanan wrote:
> Dear Professor Ranjan,
>
> In your reply to Thomas Rasmussen you offered an interpretation of
> Bonsieppe, to the effect that the ultimate test of the validity of a design
> is acceptance by users.
>
>
>> However what I take away from Bonsieppe is that he would distinguish
>> between a design concept and a "design in the field" that is found
>> acceptance in a "market place" or in the hands of numerous users (market
>> success), which is the ultimate test of the validity of a design,
>> acceptance by users.
>>
>
> You mention that the distinction works for you, so I assume you endorse this
> interpretation of Bonsieppe.
>
> Independent of whether this is an accurate interpretation of Bonsieppe, I
> would like to ask if you really believe that the "ultimate" test--not merely
> "a" test--is acceptance by users? It would seem to have serious
> implications for design ethics.
>
> I notice that simultaneous with your post there is a discussion of the
> colonialism of academic fields and perhaps design itself--a view with which
> one may agree or disagree on different criteria. This would seem to raise a
> question in regard to your own view of validity--if you really believe that
> the ultimate test of the validity of a design is acceptance by users.
>
> I will be interested in your response.
>
> Richard
>
>
> Richard Buchanan
> Carnegie Mellon University
>
>
|