The RED team attended Script last night - the Design Museum's inaugural design debate event last night, in support of Hilary Cottam, who was asked to sit on the panel.

Colin Burns, RED's Design Associate joined the debate from the floor.

Designers only do 3 things - and they are all activities shared with many other professions - so who's not a designer..?

Define by Comparison
I think it's useful to consider what designers actually do - then compare it to other professions - when considering "what isn't design..?" I rapidly come to the conclusion that design isn't really a unique activity, but one that is a basic process that is more widely shared than makes many of us comfortable.

Only 3 Things
I think that designers only do three things, really; respond by looking at the world: make things visible & tangible for others; try things out by prototyping.

Looking
If you are a user-centred designer (like me and the rest of the RED team.) then you go look at people for insight and inspiration. If you are what I call a "muser" centred designer then you take you're inspiration from your muse - a creative response to another person, a trip to the art gallery, whatever. Anthropologists and other Social Scientists also look at people to spot patterns of interest and Artists make use of at-hand personal experiences as starting points for their work - so designers aren't alone in this first activity.

Making Visible
If you go to design school then you get lots of practise at making intangible or half-baked ideas visible - so that others can critique them. This basic studio activity is a really useful way to create new things - a first materialisation of something that doesn't yet exist. Sketches, models, frameworks, diagrams are familiar outcomes here. I know a clever statistician who uses graphs and charts to make complex data sets understandable to others - just like I do when I'm making a 2x2 matrix visualisation. Another shared approach.

Trying Stuff Out
Designers like to "suck it & see" by building little mock-ups or prototypes before they commit resources to building the real thing. In business terms, this is a good risk management technique. Commit a little and learn a lot. Any good mechanical engineer will make a lash-up of a complicated mechanism before getting the machine shop to start work. Marketing folks "test market" new soap powder packaging in local territories first, before committing to launching a major change. They all prototype - for the same reasons, and in very similar ways, to designers.

Credentials "R" Us
I'm always suspicious of designers who use the "credentials" argument. The whole "I went to this Illustrious Art School or worked for that Legendary Studio or studied under this Design Magician - and you didn't, so you can't be a designer." perspective seems extrordinarily limiting in it's view. Credentials are there to be moved on from, not as a boundary to an individuals activity. This works both ways, folks - what if Terence Conran, successful restauranteur, retailer, property developer and businessman had stuck to his furniture design "knitting"..?

Big Challenges
All of this leads to a raft of major challenges to the design profession. These are what makes so many of our colleagues uncomfortable. I believe that three of the most significant are;

Becoming a behaviour-giver as well as a form-giver. Shaping the way that interactive artifacts and systems (even other people.) respond to people rather than only making 2D and 3D "things".

A move into an open Pro-Am community, rather than membership of a professionally accredited, elite, "closed-shop". We have to welcome "non-designers" into the citadel - otherwise they will storm the gate.

Giving up the authorship of your own ideas, over the facilitation of others' ideas. I really do fear that this feat of generosity over ego may be beyond many of our number.

CATEGORY: TRANSFORMATION DESIGN