Design Defined (My last blog)

*Image by Prerna Dudani

In part one of this blog I gave Professor Housefield’s and Jonathan Ive’s definition of design which was about an idea being given a form through a process. I also discovered that by this definition I have been designing all along, through my blog; giving my ideas form in each blog entry. However, in this, my last blog entry, I wanted to provide you with my own definition of design.

I believe I’ve written and re-written this entry at least five or six times but each time I come up with a definition that either a. tries to capture everything I have been blogging about which makes it too wordy and unclear or b. something that is very succinct but is cold, impersonal and frankly not mine. So, I have decided to go back on my word (see About Me section) and not define design because I don’t think I can say how I feel about or look at design better than I already have in all previous my blogs. I’m not trying to be arrogant all I’m saying is that I can come up with some clever rolls of the tongue definition for the word but it wouldn’t do justice to all the other small discoveries I have made about the nature of design throughout my blogs (see Designers Don’t Discriminate, Design is Omnipresent, Design Fulfills a Need and many more).

I know that design is about the big picture and the product and making connections but I think it is equally about the little discoveries and those small features along the way which make the big picture, the product, more than an package. “God is in the details” Mies van der Rohe said, and I believe that those small details are what stop a design from becoming a mere object. The volume button on the outside of the iPod Touch, or the little pocket on your jeans which is perfect for keeping a piece of gum or candy are those little details that we remember the most and relate the most to. Those small details and revelations are what make design personal, and design for me is so personal. In the 21^st century design surrounds us everywhere and we come in contact with it every single day of our life to the extent that we know more about the objects and things that surround us than we do of the people who are around us. You probably know more about your computer than you do your next door neighbor! (no offense to next door neighbors!) Similarly all the little discoveries and revelations that I had in my blogs about the nature of design have given me insight into design in a way that no other one line definition has been able to do.

So, in some sense I was wrong to think that coming up with a definition of design would help me understand it better and thus enable me enter the design world because I have learned more about design in the process of coming up with a definition than the actual definition itself. And who says that you have to have pocket definition of design to enter the design world, not I, not anymore. I believe I entered the design world with my first blog entry and have been calling it my own ever since. So I apologize for going back on my word but I hope you understand why I couldn’t do what I had planned on doing. On the bright side, I’m leaving behind 18 blogs that each say something unique about the nature of design in a way that a simple definition wouldn’t. Thank you so much for reading and coming along with me on this journey, I look forward to working with you in the future.

Sincerely,

Prerna Dudani

Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Ive

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Mies_van_der_Rohe

http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/features/

Design is about Systems: Sustainable Innovation by Nathan Shedroff

*Image credited below

Nathan Shedroff’s lecture titled Sustainable Innovation begins by posing the audience three questions: what’s a more sustainable world look like? what’s a more meaningful world look like? and what’s a post-consumer world look like? He provides Cuba, India, Brazil, Build-A-Bear and even Star Trek as potential examples of such places that are sustainable, least consumerist, and very meaningful (to some). However, all these places are incomplete because even though they rank high on the questions raised above they have bigger problems such as poverty and hunger to deal with so we can’t really adopt their system. While others like Star Trek are just not viable options. Thus, he states that we don’t have answers to these questions but we need answers, and the answers need to come from designers!

With the framework set and the seeds implanted, Shedroff throughout his lecture tries to provide us, the audience of designers, with tools and tips with which to create a “more sustainable design” in the hopes of better understanding the questions posed above, and thus getting us a step closer to answering them.

He states that to understand the questions, we need to understand other sectors of our society such as the business and sustainability sectors. We have to know a little bit about economics, finance, ecology etc. so that when do come up with sustainable solutions we are able to implement them universally in all the different sectors of society. Shedroff calls this type of approach system thinking. Thinking in systems, according to Shedroff, is not limited to sectors it also encompasses multidisciplinary teamwork or diversifying our thinking group, thinking about and engaging with our clients and customers, focusing on the experience and benefit not the product etc. Basically, not getting stuck on one aspect or one object but rather thinking about everything that surrounds that thing and involving the system or systems that surround that one aspect into our solution. Finally, he ends by giving us some very important tips such as: design for use, dematerialize, focusing on efficiency (less is more) and last but not the least, create meaning in our designs.

So Shedroff was incorrect when he stated that designers hold the answer to the questions mentioned above because like he says all systems related to an idea need to be thought about before a solution is produced. Thus, all systems associated with these questions need to contribute to the answer(s). Business, Manufacturing, Environment, Design etc. all hold part of the answer to these questions. So as designers the pressure is off a little, but in another way it is back on. For if we are to create more meanigfu and sustainable designs, we need to be "bilingual" in not only our own design world but also in the financial, economic, agricultural etc. etc. worlds.

Image courtesy of http://www.nathan.com/thoughts/RethinkingConsumption.pdf

Links:

http://www.nathan.com/

http://www.nathan.com/thoughts/RethinkingConsumption.pdf