With the continuous development of society, the connotation of design is also developing. The core of current design is to increase the interaction between people and society, so that people can increase the sense of experience in the process of thinking and finding problems.
But at the fork of the current design development, should we continue the tradition, or stay away from the history and keep up with the mainstream practice?
1、Design as a Craft
As a skilled craft, design can create useful and beautiful pleasant objects. However, with the development of various skills, craft is valuable but not enough to be a leader, and it can not solve the problems of environmental pollution and social unrest caused by scientific and technological progress.
2、Design as an Evidence-Based Discipline
Compared with simple design, after the introduction of science and technology, we need new design forms to solve the problems——interaction design and service design, in which the human-centered design thinking is the most important.
1. Explore the causes and needs from the root
2. Analysis based on evidence
3. It needs to be updated iteratively
3、 Design Education
In order to make design more leading, educators must encourage students to explore and learn more technology. The current design is not only to build pleasant objects, but also to solve problems according to the actual situation.
Therefore, the education mode should keep pace with the times – to retain the tradition, to explore and innovate.
4、The Fork in the Road
We are now facing two possible future design paths:
1. A craft and practice:
creating beauty and pleasure in our lives, using the increasing powers of technology to create wonderful experiences.
2. A mode of thinking:
always focus on people’s main concerns , and solving the main problems of today’s era: health, famine, environment and inequality.
5、 Two futures for design
In the face of two kinds of design, we don’t have to choose one from the other. We need both thinkers and doers. Contemporary designers should not only do but also think. Contemporary design needs to think while doing, constantly update and iterate.
But at the same time, we also need some craft foundation, so that we can learn and think through painting and doing things.
Reading list：
Donald Norman, 2016. The Future of Design: When you come to a fork in the road, take it [online]
Available at: <http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/the_future_of_design.html> [Accessed 27 February 2020]
Published
2021/02/27 at 9:26 am
