Social design

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Social design is the application of design methodologies in order to tackle complex human issues, placing the social issues as the priority. Historically social design has been mindful of the designer's role and responsibility in society, and of the use of design processes to bring about social change. [1] Social design as a discipline has been practiced primarily in two different models, as either the application of the human-centered design methodology in the social sector or governmental sector, or sometimes is synonymously practiced by designers who venture into social entrepreneurship.

Contents

Models

Stanford model of design thinking

Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d school) and IDEO collaboratively created interdisciplinary research in 1991 in order to improve the design process, and from that, Stanford's model of design thinking as a process emerged. [2] The Stanford model has been applied to social design, where the goal is to develop both human and social capital with new products and processes that can be profitable, a goal that the anti-capitalist magazine In These Times called "naïve, at best". [2]

Margolin's social model

Victor Margolin and Sylvia Margolin wrote in 2002 about the "social model" as a design practice and research methodology, primarily focused on social services but the ideas could be expanded in to educational systems, healthcare systems and for civic technology design. [3] The social model involves a focus on human needs by taking inspiration from core social work literature and has an ecological perspective (that is less commonly seen in modes of design). [3] Margolin suggests a multifaceted approach to solving problems, first accessing the situation by answering a few core questions, followed by survey research and interviews, content analysis of archival data, and/or participant observation. [3]

IDEO model

The design firm, IDEO defines social design as a process that encourages community facilitation including the sharing of conversation and ideas, beliefs and rituals. [4] The process should be supportive and empowering for those involved and offer an innovative and feasible process. [4] The designer(s) should not try to change people's behavior and they draws on the differences in cultural traditions and cultural beliefs in order to frame the problems within society. [4] Additionally there is importance of the wider influence including the environmental awareness of the design, since the environment effects everyone and is interconnected. [4]

The New Materialist Model

This model seeks to break down any distinction between design and society. Boelen and Kaethler argue that all design is, for good or bad, essentially social because it is produced by, and exists in, the social realm. They observe, "A [new] materialist reading of social design on one hand complexifies the design process and on the other offers insight into meaningful forms of engagement." [5] It employs central themes developed by thinkers such as Jane Bennet, Tim Ingold and Bruno Latour and as a result it produces design that rejects the logic of solutionism and tends towards research, personal reflection and story-telling—such as auto-ethnographic design. [6] [7] It is critiqued for being 'naval gazing' and too closely resembling artist practice and production. [7]

History

Within the design world, social design is defined as a design process that contributes to improving human well-being and livelihood. [8]

The ideas behind social design has been inspired by Victor Papanek's writings, he was one of the first to address issues of social design in the 1960s. He was focused on creating change within the design field and no longer tolerating misdesign, any design that does not account for the needs of all people and disregards its own environmental consequences. [9] To be a positive force in society, design and designers need to be socially and morally responsible, designers carry a serious responsibility for the consequences their designs have on society. [10] These consequences include environmental impact and designers can contribute to designing more considerate and ecological products by carefully selecting the materials they use. [10] Papanek also remarks on designing for people's needs (rather than their wants) and designers have responsibility over the choices they make in design processes. [9] Often design is detached from the real world and is focused on the commercial market by designing for luxury items or for just a few people based on aesthetics, or disposable items. Papanek emphasizes designers should have a keen eye for where the need is and often that is found by looking at marginalized populations.

Another author who contributes to the development of social design is Victor Margolin. [3] He writes in the 2002 book, The Politics of the Artificial: Essays on Design and Design Studies the "designer's ability to envision and give form on material and immaterial products that can address human problems on broad scale and contribute to social well-being." This ideology is something that social design is built on. [11] In this view social design is an activity that should not be framed with connotations of charity, aid donations, help, etc. It is not voluntary work, but it should be seen as professional contribution that plays a part in local economic development or livelihood. At the same time Social Design also challenges the conventional market model of designing. While traditionally, Design has been approached as a profession that remains strictly answerable to market forces, social design envisages the possibility of a more distributive conception of surpluses, by ensuring that the benefits of services and systems reach a wider range of user groups who may often fall outside the market system. [3] Margolin writes, "The primary purpose of design for the market is creating products for sale. Conversely, the foremost intent of social design is the satisfaction of human needs." [3]

Designer George Aye writes about the importance of acknowledging the role of power when designing for complex social sector issues, as one may do for social design projects. [12] Depending on the project, designing for user engagement in a project can be more important than designing for solutions, and it encourages the use of human-centered design methodologies. [12]

Engineer Chris Cox of Facebook used the term "social design" in 2010 and 2011 as, "[social design] defines the concept as improving how people build human-to-human, versus human-to-interface, connections online". [13] [14] [15]

Outside the design world social design appears in a number of professional environments, there are many artists that use the term social design or social practice to describe their work, though the work is exhibited within the contexts of the art world and have a different dialog when compared to design.

Initiatives

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Design</span> Plan for the construction of an object or system

A design is a concept of or proposal for an object, a process, or a system. Design refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, though it is sometimes used to refer to the nature of something – its design. The verb to design expresses the process of developing a design. In some cases, the direct construction of an object without an explicit prior plan may also be considered to be a design. A design is expected to have a purpose within a certain context, usually has to satisfy certain goals and constraints, and to take into account aesthetic, functional, economic, environmental or socio-political considerations. Typical examples of designs include architectural and engineering drawings, circuit diagrams, sewing patterns and less tangible artefacts such as business process models.

Systems design interfaces, and data for an electronic control system to satisfy specified requirements. Systems design could be seen as the application of systems theory to product development. There is some overlap with the disciplines of systems analysis, systems architecture and systems engineering.

IDEO is a design and consulting firm with offices in the U.S., England, and China. It was founded in Palo Alto, California, in 1991. The company's 500 staff uses a design thinking approach to design products, services, environments, brands, and digital experiences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Form follows function</span> Design philosophy of 19th–20th centuries

Form follows function is a principle of design associated with late 19th- and early 20th-century architecture and industrial design in general, which states that the shape of a building or object should primarily relate to its intended function or purpose.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor Papanek</span>

Victor Josef Papanek (22 November 1923 – 10 January 1998) was an Austrian-born American designer and educator, who became a strong advocate of the socially and ecologically responsible design of products, tools, and community infrastructures. His book Design for the Real World, originally published in 1971 and translated into more than 24 languages, had lasting international impact.

Service design is the activity of planning and arranging people, infrastructure, communication and material components of a service in order to improve its quality, and the interaction between the service provider and its users. Service design may function as a way to inform changes to an existing service or create a new service entirely.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yrjö Sotamaa</span> Finnish designer and design strategist

Yrjö Kalervo Sotamaa is a Finnish designer and design strategist. Sotamaa is Professor Emeritus of Design Innovation in the Aalto University School of Art, Design and Architecture and President Emeritus of the University of Art and Design Helsinki (TAIK). He served as the president of TAIK from 1986 until 2008. He earned his MA in Interior Architecture and Furniture Design from TAIK, where he studied with Kaj Franck and Antti Nurmesniemi.

Design methods are procedures, techniques, aids, or tools for designing. They offer a number of different kinds of activities that a designer might use within an overall design process. Conventional procedures of design, such as drawing, can be regarded as design methods, but since the 1950s new procedures have been developed that are more usually grouped together under the name of "design methods". What design methods have in common is that they "are attempts to make public the hitherto private thinking of designers; to externalise the design process".

Empathic design is a user-centered design approach that pays attention to the user's feelings toward a product. The empathic design process is sometimes mistakenly referred to as empathetic design.

Design thinking refers to the set of cognitive, strategic and practical procedures used by designers in the process of designing, and to the body of knowledge that has been developed about how people reason when engaging with design problems.

User experience design defines the experience a user would go through when interacting with a company, its services, and its products. User experience design is a user centered design approach because it considers the user's experience when using a product or platform. Research, data analysis, and test results drive design decisions in UX design rather than aesthetic preferences and opinions. Unlike user interface design, which focuses solely on the design of a computer interface, UX design encompasses all aspects of a user's perceived experience with a product or website, such as its usability, usefulness, desirability, brand perception, and overall performance. UX design is also an element of the customer experience (CX), and encompasses all aspects and stages of a customer's experience and interaction with a company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ecological design</span> Design approach sensitive to environmental impacts

Ecological design or ecodesign is an approach to designing products and services that gives special consideration to the environmental impacts of a product over its entire lifecycle. Sim Van der Ryn and Stuart Cowan define it as "any form of design that minimizes environmentally destructive impacts by integrating itself with living processes." Ecological design can also be defined as the process of integrating environmental considerations into design and development with the aim of reducing environmental impacts of products through their life cycle.

Philosophy of design is the study of definitions of design, and the assumptions, foundations, and implications of design. The field, which is mostly a sub-discipline of aesthetics, is defined by an interest in a set of problems, or an interest in central or foundational concerns in design. In addition to these central problems for design as a whole, many philosophers of design consider these problems as they apply to particular disciplines. Although most practitioners are philosophers of aesthetics, several prominent designers and artists have contributed to the field. For an introduction to the philosophy of design see the article by Per Galle at the Royal Danish Academy.

Value sensitive design (VSD) is a theoretically grounded approach to the design of technology that accounts for human values in a principled and comprehensive manner. VSD originated within the field of information systems design and human-computer interaction to address design issues within the fields by emphasizing the ethical values of direct and indirect stakeholders. It was developed by Batya Friedman and Peter Kahn at the University of Washington starting in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Later, in 2019, Batya Friedman and David Hendry wrote a book on this topic called "Value Sensitive Design: Shaping Technology with Moral Imagination". Value Sensitive Design takes human values into account in a well-defined matter throughout the whole process. Designs are developed using an investigation consisting of three phases: conceptual, empirical and technological. These investigations are intended to be iterative, allowing the designer to modify the design continuously.

Environmentally sustainable design is the philosophy of designing physical objects, the built environment, and services to comply with the principles of ecological sustainability and also aimed at improving the health and comfort of occupants in a building. Sustainable design seeks to reduce negative impacts on the environment, the health and well-being of building occupants, thereby improving building performance. The basic objectives of sustainability are to reduce the consumption of non-renewable resources, minimize waste, and create healthy, productive environments.

Transgenerational design is the practice of making products and environments compatible with those physical and sensory impairments associated with human aging and which limit major activities of daily living. The term transgenerational design was coined in 1986, by Syracuse University industrial design professor James J. Pirkl to describe and identify products and environments that accommodate, and appeal to, the widest spectrum of those who would use them—the young, the old, the able, the disabled—without penalty to any group. The transgenerational design concept emerged from his federally funded design-for-aging research project, Industrial design Accommodations: A Transgenerational Perspective. The project's two seminal 1988 publications provided detailed information about the aging process; informed and sensitized industrial design professionals and design students about the realities of human aging; and offered a useful set of guidelines and strategies for designing products that accommodate the changing needs of people of all ages and abilities.

Åbäke is a transdisciplinary graphic design collective, founded in 2000 by Patrick Lacey (UK), Benjamin Reichen (FR), Kajsa Ståhl (SE) and Maki Suzuki (FR) in London, England, after meeting at the Royal College of Art.

Victor Margolin (1941–2019) was an American design historian, researcher and educator. He was a Professor of design history at the University of Illinois, Chicago, where he taught from 1982 until 2006. Margolin published widely and was the founding editor and co-editor of the academic design journal, Design Issues. A major work was his comprehensive World History of Design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Behavioural design</span> Field of design concerned with the influence of design on behavior

Behavioural design is a sub-category of design, which is concerned with how design can shape, or be used to influence human behaviour. All approaches of design for behaviour change acknowledge that artifacts have an important influence on human behaviour and/or behavioural decisions. They strongly draw on theories of behavioural change, including the division into personal, behavioural, and environmental characteristics as drivers for behaviour change. Areas in which design for behaviour change has been most commonly applied include health and wellbeing, sustainability, safety and social context, as well as crime prevention.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Design studies</span> Academic field

Design studies can refer to any design-oriented studies but is more formally an academic discipline or field of study that pursues, through both theoretical and practical modes of inquiry, a critical understanding of design practice and its effects in society.

References

  1. ↑ "Overview M.A. in Social Design (MASD)". Maryland Institute College of Art. Retrieved 2018-03-19.
  2. 1 2 3 Rule, Alix (2008-01-11). "The Revolution Will Not Be Designed". In These Times . ISSN   0160-5992 . Retrieved 2020-04-01.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Margolin, Victor; Margolin, Sylvia (2002-10-01). "A "Social Model" of Design: Issues of Practice and Research". Design Issues. 18 (4): 24–30. doi: 10.1162/074793602320827406 . ISSN   0747-9360. S2CID   57569427.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "What is Social Design? by IDEO", YouTube (Video), retrieved 2020-04-01
  5. 1 2 Boelen, Jan; Kaethler, Michael, eds. (2020). Social matter, social design: for good or bad, all design is social. Amsterdam: Valiz. ISBN   978-94-92095-84-8.
  6. ↑ Fuller, Jarrett (2022-04-27). "The Auto-Ethnographic Turn in DesignThe Auto-Ethnographic Turn in Design , edited by Louise Schouwenberg and Michael KaethlerAmsterdam: Valiz, 2021, 336 pp. 9789493246041. $35.00/£27". Design and Culture. 16 (1): 109–112. doi:10.1080/17547075.2022.2061138. ISSN   1754-7075 – via JSTOR.
  7. 1 2 Schouwenberg, Louise; Kaethler, Michael, eds. (2021). The auto-ethnographic turn in design. Amsterdam: Valiz. ISBN   978-94-93246-04-1.
  8. ↑ Holm, Ivar (2006). Ideas and Beliefs in Architecture and Industrial design: How attitudes, orientations, and underlying assumptions shape the built environment. Oslo School of Architecture and Design. ISBN   82-547-0174-1.
  9. 1 2 Papanek, Victor (1984): Design for the Real World. Academy Chicago Publishers. Completely Revised Second Edition
  10. 1 2 "Design Provocateur: Revisiting the Prescient Ideas of Victor Papanek". Metropolis. 2019-01-24. Retrieved 2020-04-01.
  11. ↑ Margolin, Victor (2002): The Politics of the Artificial. Essays on Design and Design Studies. The University of Chicago Press. Chicago and London
  12. 1 2 Aye, George (2017-06-07). "Design Education's Big Gap: Understanding the Role of Power". Medium. Retrieved 2020-04-01.
  13. ↑ Fowler, Geoffrey A. (2010-10-10). "Facebook's 'Social' Chief Pushes Human Interaction". Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660 . Retrieved 2020-04-01.
  14. ↑ "Facebook's Ethan Beard: Driving Engagement - and Growth - Through 'Social Design'". Knowledge@Wharton. 2011. Retrieved 2020-04-01.
  15. ↑ Jana, Reena (2011-09-21). "A Visit With Facebook's VP Of Product, And His Redesign Team". Fast Company. Retrieved 2020-04-01.
  16. ↑ "5 Inspiring Social Design Pioneers". IDEO. 2012. Retrieved 2020-04-01.
  17. ↑ "Social Design: A Discipline In Its Own Right". Metropolis. 2017-01-20. Retrieved 2020-04-01.
  18. ↑ "Etusivu". www.taik.fi. 2013-04-29. Retrieved 2018-03-19.
  19. ↑ Among the publications are:
    University of Art and Design Helsinki, Working Papers F 31. Potentials: Design in the Field : New Discourse on Craft Development 1-2.Helsinki 2006 (http://www.taik.fi/tutkimus/julkaisut/working_papers.html)
    Miettinen, Satu: Designing the Creative Tourism Experience. A Service Design Process with Namibian Crafts People. Publication series of University of Art and Design Helsinki A 81. Doctoral Dissertation. Gummerus kirjapaino oy. Jyväskylä 2007.
    Miettinen, Satu (ed.): Design Your Action. Publication series of University of Art and Design Helsinki B 82. Gummerus kirjapaino oy. Jyväskylä 2007.
  20. ↑ "Social Design". www.dieangewandte.at. Retrieved 2018-03-19.
  21. ↑ "Social Design_Arts as Urban Innovation".
  22. ↑ "Creative Intelligence and Innovation | University of Technology Sydney". Archived from the original on 2016-04-12. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
  23. ↑ "What is Creative Intelligence and Innovation | University of Technology Sydney". Archived from the original on 2016-04-15. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
  24. ↑ Diseño Social EN+

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