Dear Klaus,
Thank you for your message. Somewhere in the exchange there appears to be a
difference of opinion between us about who is a designer, and about ethical
practices relating to social and environmental issues. I'll try to clarify
where I was coming from
For me, when I read the terms 'professional designers' or 'designers',
these include engineering designers from all the hundreds of engineering
fields, designers from the forty or so Art and Design fields, technical
designers from fields such as Information Systems design, and designers
from the built environment design fields of architecture, Urban Design and
related design fields, and all the other newer design fields such as
learning systems design, business strategy design, and policy design.
Designed objects such as the iPhone from the above perspective are designed
predominately by engineering and technical designers with them undertaking
perhaps as much as 95% of the overall design activity. What is seen on the
surface of the products, of course, is designed by those specialising with
interfaces, visually-based interactions emotions and communication, but
these kinds of products could not exist without the design work of the more
technical realms of designers who are also aware of and shape what is
possible in the social interaction and communication realm.
You seemed in your previous post to be suggesting that designers who work
more with social factors and communication are ethically superior to
engineering designers in these issues. When I thought of the same situation,
what came to mind was the design outcomes that were unhelpful in the social
realm such as the was the work of visual designers on anti-smoking packaging
that at a deep level appeared to be encouraging people to smoke. Then I
remembered other examples of graphic and advertising design that encouraged
people into less than helpful behaviours of imbibing things, undertaking
activities, buying products, following political doctrines or adopting
particular attitudes that would lead to ill health, social problems,
environmental problems or, more generally, result in less than positive
outcomes. So, I explored the ethical professional codes of conduct of
some of the major Art and Design professional institutions for designers
(AGDA, ICOGRADA.ICSID, IFI, CSD and sundry architects boards) and found
that none of them have anything like the same depth of detail and regulation
on social, environmental and ethical issues that engineering designers must
satisfy - including in their personal life. None of the codes of conduct I
read insists, as the engineering codes of conduct do , that designers must
professionally have an activist role in which if necessary they must act
against their clients and employers to ensure positive social, environmental
and ethical outcomes else they will be banned from practicing as engineering
designers. This difference extends into differences in everyday design
practices. For example, how many graphic, advertising, or communication
designers must submit social and environmental impact assessments for their
day to day work? This is something relatively common for more technical
design fields.
Hence, my comment in my previous email, which I accept may be irrelevant to
you if you see 'designers' as not including the more technical design
fields.
In your follow up email, you asked several questions (below) about who I
would employ, and I think we are perhaps on different trains at the same
station on this. I'd certainly prefer to employ designers who were experts
in the fields that aligned with particular tasks. I'm also aware, taking a
wider view, that all of the tasks you listed depend at heart heavily on
technical designers. Also, I'd prefer if all the designers were operating
under appropriate professional codes of conduct that included and gave
priority to social and environmental and ethical factors over and above the
financial arrangements with clients.
Not sure what else I can say that would be helpful. And this is a long way
off 'Herbert Simon'.
Best wishes,
Terry
---
Dr Terence Love
PhD(UWA), BA(Hons) Engin. PGCEd, FDRS, AMIMechE, PMACM, MISI
Honorary Fellow
IEED, Management School
Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
Director,
Love Services Pty Ltd
PO Box 226, Quinns Rocks
Western Australia 6030
Tel: +61 (0)4 3497 5848
Fax:+61 (0)8 9305 7629
[log in to unmask]
--
-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related
research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Klaus
Krippendorff
Sent: Monday, 9 September 2013 11:01 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Herbert Simon
terry,
would you hire an engineer to design a compelling website?
would you hire an engineer to design the interface of a content analysis
software for social scientists?
would you hire an engineer to restructure a corporation to save it from
bankruptcy?
would you hire an engineer to design a political campaign?
would you hire an engineer to design a financial product that a bank can
offer to its clients?
would you hire an engineer to design legislation that improves the ecology
of a lake? .........................
in my experiences, engineers solve individual and social problems by
proposing technological solutions. most of the time they either don't work
out or once implemented, they soon set in motion other problems in need of a
solution. left to engineers, such problems tend to create never ending
chains of solutions and problems -- unless a sensible person realizes that
these are not engineering problems, crying for solutions that allow people
to live with them.
klaus
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