I really like the way this was put by Klaus
I am at the same time reminded of another piece by Dilnot in which he talks about how much of everyday life is saturated with the designed, and the artificial, and how important therefore is an ethics of design, not only for design I think, but for ethics simpliciter.
When designers go beyond what their clients propose, whilst negotiating the clients needs, there is an opportunity to shape culture positively, and even ethically. I can't imagine a more important group of people than professional designers for helping us shape culture and civilization positively.
All best
Jude
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in my view, translation is not a good metaphor for human-centered design. translation always involves maintaining the meaning of something, originally of a text, but metaphorically including someone's conceptions, during a process of expressing it in another language. a translator wants to be accurate, omit little or nothing, and would be considered a bad translator if he or she would add something of his or her own.
i do think it is important for human centered designers to be able to listen to how users see their needs, desires, practices, indeed the world in which they live. this is what ethnography teaches. but designers, at least professional designers, need to go beyond merely taking dictations from their clients. in my view, designers need to propose something that their clients could not envisioned on their own and present their work in ways that it is embraced for the opportunities it makes available. if designers were limited to merely translate what they are told, they might well be replaced by an algorithm. designers can justify their profession only if they contribute something extraordinary to the lives of others.
klaus
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National Institute of Education (Singapore) http://www.nie.edu.sg
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