Dear all,
It seems to me that this thread has come down to navel gazing. How one can reduce the complex and visionary tasks of giving shape to the future through AI policies (artificial products of design in and by themselves) to “planning and management” and take it away from the realm of design is beyond me. It is to me a sign of not wanting to be responsible for some areas of human form giving. Because when we acknowledge what we can design and give shape to, design has a different stake in the game. This does not mean that all designers will work on all problems. But it means that design is central to many professions (just like Simon claimed if you wish, though I don’t fully subscribe to his views). What’s different are the materials, problems and products people struggle with. What’s different is their design knowledge and capability to explore the full range of possibilities by inventing and envisioning the previously unthinkable and by figuring out how to generate the arguments and the ways in which to make some of these possibilities become reality. Unfortunately, this includes bad outcomes and bad designs, too.
Why do so many people outside of the field of design have a much easier time to grasp that their design activities, their design principles and their design practices and processes relate directly to their design outcomes? The SDG Agenda 2030 is full of design challenges and design questions on all levels and all specializations and all skills of design. After a design class, a senior manager of a public agency reflected: “i was going to approach the project with my usual management mind. It did not get me anywhere. I finally realized this is a design problem. And I recognized the limitations of my first approach.” I really do think we have bigger fish to fry than to parse ourselves into different design camps. How can we possibly understand the essence of design when we hide behind definitions when at this very moment in time, design offers so much to people and society? George Nelson, famous for his products designs , wrote the book Problems of Design in the midst of the Watergate crisis. It’s a timely read again and should help soothe some anxieties.
Blurted out while watching the World Cup to which I will now return. Best to all Sabine
Sent from my iPhone
> On 26. Jun 2018, at 15:12, Richard Herriott <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
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> If I am going to be strict in my definition of design I´d call your current work planning or management.
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> -----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 Sandra Bermudez
> Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2018 2:36 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Is this still design?
>
> I was trained as graphic designer and started working as web designer, by the beginning more on the making: drawing interfaces and coding them. As long as the projects were more complex I had to focus more on the definition of the requirements, then on the problem, finally on the people.
> That's more UX. When UX was more complex and I had to be accountable to the business, I became Product Manager and then Head of Product. Now I'm also working with my city government in the definition of public policies for AI development.
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> And I wonder myself: is this still design?
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> Now I constantly invoke sociology, psychology and humanities principles to face the concerns of my day to day practice. Recently I attended a symposium of techno-sociology and now I feel tempted to address the way I do design as applied sociology.
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> And yet, we still need "traditional" design.
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> So, is "strategic" design the evolution of "traditional" design? An opposition? A displacement?
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