The I word

Innovation, it is acceptable or not these days for designers to innovate?

Only Transformation will be able to pull us through this economic crisis, as “Innovation” died in 2008, killed off by overuse, misuse, narrowness, incrementalism and failure to evolve. That was posted by Bruce Nussbaum in Business week last year. Innovation was labeled so 2008, and is to be replaced by Transformation. Add to this mix some Change from President Obama and it begins to sound to me that in order to successfully emerge from the other end of this crisis all we have to do is Mutate.

Just like a bacteria colony that survives by mutating out of its exhausted niche, businesses need to mutate to grow stronger and wiser to inhabit the new economic landscape that is presenting itself.

Let's Mutate. Weed out the week and replace them with stronger, more aware, more efficient and effective businesses. I think design can help companies mutate by making them aware of their fundamental building blocks, or DNA, that encodes the essence of who they are. By uncovering the DNA, beit the skills and investment of staff, needs of target audiences, sustainable growth patterns, design can help businesses secure longevity for the future.

Thorough design-based research allows all aspects of the business system to be analyzed, no one unit will be dealt with individually without appreciating it's positive and/or negative feedback mechanisms. This way, the whole business organization can be structured to support itself, sustainably and successfully...

...just an opinion

Affordances in NYC

On a trip up to New York, I found these examples of people creating their own design solutions within their environment.

Thoughtless act

The perfect cable hanging device

I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok

Microlandscapes - My homage to Slinkachu.

The world needs more little people.

Thanks to Prof Bejamin Olshin at UArts, for introducing me to Slinkachu.

People+Environment=Design

Welcome to Suburban Anthropology lesson 1.

Jane Fulton Suri calls them "Thoughtless acts". I've heard them called "affordances", "environmental artifacts", "user-centered designs"

The following photo are examples of how people interact with a world that isn't perfectly tailored for their needs. By taking cues from what the environment affords them, people can create their own, often insightful, design solutions to the problems they face in everyday life.

Lets observe

Design, sustainability and spirals

Over the last few weeks I've been reading about sustainable human-centered design. One of the most interesting papers I read was by Daniel Christian Wahl and Seaton Baxter, published by Design Issues journal here. The paper focuses on the role designers play in developing sustainable solutions. Wahl and Baxter present a unique (and an initially difficult to understand) viewpoint of how to generate sustainable design solutions. However, once I got my head around it (I'm getting better at readying outwith a science context) their argument is certainly compelling.

The paper proposes that true sustainable solutions will only be achieved by designing across disciplines and using cross-collaborative research. In order to do this, groups of design teams should integrate the knowledge from various professions, including designers, anthropologists, scientists, social workers, artists, historians (to name a few) and stakeholders (who they are designing for). By doing so, the view-points and "meta-design" (beliefs, knowledge, values) ideals held by different disciplines will create a dialogue which delivers a more "holistic" understanding of the problem.

How will designers make sure that dialogues (and potential solutions) do not miss their target. Wahl and Baxter propose that the theory of Spiral Dynamics may be used to structure a framework for integrating the perspectives across disciplines. Spiral dynamics is a systems that identifies a number of behavioral systems, based on the biological, psychological and social interactions and relationships that these aspects of humanity result in. Each level of the spiral is characterized by certain world views, value systems, beliefs, modes of living etc, and the higher you are on the spiral the less ego-centric and more world-centric you become. When employed in design, spiral dynamics can allow designers to better understand where participants/people/communities are "coming from" (their "mind-set" "needs and beliefs"). Thus, more effective dialogue and solutions will be generated.

Interestingly, Wahl and Baxter also speculate that by encouraging individuals to move up the spiral via integrated holistic design, "designers can help change culturally dominant worldviews and value systems", which could "effect changes in lifestyles and resource use that will drive sustainable transition".

I can definitely see the benefit of this way of thinking. When many perspectives are brought together and the direction and target of their approach is properly understood, surely more effective solutions will be generated. This is particularly true to developing effective solutions to sustainability issues. When these integrated collaborations meet participants on their level on the spiral, they will respond positively and be involved in the solution itself. Furthermore, by meeting them on their level, designers can then begin to push society into a more socially and worldly responsible mind set.

Sustainable and organizational design links

These sites and sources have been particularly useful for learning more about sustainable and organizational design

Sustainable Everyday website on human centered design initiatives and scenarios
In the Bubble by John Thackara (fantastic book) highlights how we can change past design practices into ones that create more functional and effective solutions. These may have the potential to design new services that help reconnect us socially, economically and environmentally....technology may not always be the answer!!
Design Issues journal winter 2007 has an excellent series of papers which concentrate on how design theory can be applied to organizational change. I found the papers on the deisgn pratices of Frank Gehry and the ZIBA redesign of Fedex particularly interesting and useful.