On 04/08/2007, at 3:08 AM, Victor Margolin wrote:
> Why is so much research attention given to the process of design
> and so little to its results - the products that are the outcomes
> of designing, their value and social consequences.
Victor,
While we can point to a lack of attention in almost every area of
design research--that being the nature of research in general--I
don't think the area of social consequences is an area where there is
no attention, and it may be, as others have suggested, that you are
looking in some of the wrong places. The areas outside design are
obvious, but the areas inside may be less so.
Here are a few thoughts.
1. By its nature design is interventionist. It takes place in the
social world and acts on and within that world. Even our definition
of what constitutes a design 'problem' is socially constructed and as
a consequence is both an implicit and explicit critique of the the
current social world. So questions of value and social consequence
are already there within design activity.
2. The central point at issue in your question is whether or not
designers are themselves aware of the social nature of what they do
and the fact that what they do has social consequences.
3. I cannot speak for all design areas, only my own small area of
information design. In that area I can point to a significant
historical and ongoing concern for and engagement with social issues
and consequences. Sometimes this concern and engagement takes on an
almost invisible aspect. For example, Ken Garland, in his lovely book
on the designer of the London underground Map, Harry Beck, quotes Mr
Beck as follows:
> I tried to imagine that I was using a convex lens or mirror, so as
> to present the central area on a large scale. This, I thought,
> would give a needed clarity to interchange information. (Garland
> 1994, page 17)
That concern for 'clarity' on behalf of others is a central
preoccupation of information design. It may be a minor aspect of
social life, one of the small social areas of concern, but it is
profoundly social and Beck, along with many others was concerned with
social consequences. Of course, Mr Beck's little diagram has had
considerable social consequences when it comes to travelling in
London, not all of them good. For example, a friend of mine recently
suggested that the journey from Leicester Square to Covent Garden was
the most expensive journey per mile of any on earth--even more
expensive than Concord. The distortion of Mr Beck's 'lens', distorts
aspects of human behaviour, social action.
4. There are many descriptions of the design process. Our own
involves 7 stages: Scoping, benchmarking, prototype development,
testing, refining, implementing and monitoring. I would suggest that
there is quite explicit concern for social consequences at the
scoping and monitoring stages. But it is also there implicitly in all
the other stages. Thus I would suggest that at least some design
processes are suffused with a concern for the social.
5. Many designers and related professionals give freely of their time
to help in the development of standards. Done well, standardising in
design institutionalises good design practice. For example, look at
ISO 13407: HUMAN CENTRED DESIGN PROCESS FOR INTERACTIVE SYSTEMS. Many
of us working in this area draw heavily on this type of document.
Much of my own research is concerned with the development of this
type of document and is about institutionalising good design
practice. Again, I would suggest that this is concerned with the
social aspects of design, not just critiquing existing practices--
that is implicit in this type of work--but also, and more
importantly, CHANGING social practices to bring about changes in
society.
So, as well as the areas mentioned by others, there is a wealth of
activity in and through design practice that is concerned with the
social , but I agree, never enough.
David
--
blog: www.communication.org.au/dsblog
web: http://www.communication.org.au
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