As an aftermath to the resent discussion and triggered also by some remarks by Ken something good turned out for me: it made me think (again) what designers need and about this diversity. To all of us (including me) who have strong opinions about what designers should learn and where it should move in the future it would be very helpful to leave global argumentation and start recognizing the diversities in the design field. E.g. in many cases the arts and craft roots of design has been seen as a disadvantage and something we need to put behind us. I think this is a mistake if it is taken for a general recommendation valid for all design fields. Some designers need more of that DNA to be awakened! To my mind some few others need advanced mathematics. (Thanks for that Terry :) )

Here is my very quick and dirty attempt to make a list that might be helpful if developed in our discussions about what kind of design is moving where.

Would be cool if somebody would like to add and correct.  

All designers need (almost all designers): Composition skills, synthesizing skills, ethics, ….

Most designers need: Creativity, flow etc (as described in cognitive creativity research), intuition (as an expert feature described by Dreyfus and Dreyfus Skill Acquisition model), sustainability, design thinking, esthetic skills, some media knowledge, skills in tools and design media, drawing, sketching, computer graphics …..

A majority of designers need: Social skills, empathy, cultural knowledge, cross-cultural understanding, communication skills, business understanding, innovation, systems practice and understanding, product service systems, visual thinking, some spatial understanding, co-designing, facilitation …. 

A minority of designers need: political knowledge, society, statistics, academic writing, management skills, lower level mathematics, coping with thrownness, artistic skills, engineering skills, marketing, advanced understanding of space, ability to redefine and open new fields for design, some basic systems theories …. 

Some few designers need: High level mathematics, ethnography, systems theories, information visualization skills, ….. 



Birger Sevaldson (PhD, MNIL) 
Professor at Institute of Design
Oslo School of Architecture and Design
Norway
Phone (0047) 9118 9544
www.birger-sevaldson.no
www.systemsorienteddesign.net
www.ocean-designresearch.net


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