Lucy's Literature Review

Social Design.Literature Review

September 2010, for peer review

Lucy Fraser, s3203390, Methods and Research with Simone Leamon

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Contents

Design for Good

Model

Case Study

Design in Context

Model

Case Study

Integrated Design

Model

Case Study

Annotate Bibliography

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Research Practice 1Design for Good

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Model

Though ‘Do Good Design’, is the title of David Berman’s book, the cover graphics and inside text clarify that what Berman means is “Don’t just do good design, do good.” For the most recent half of design history, writers have been emphasising the in!uence and therefore responsibility that designers have. Berman contin-ues pushing this belief, saying ‘Designers have an essential social responsibility because design is at the core of the worlds largest challenges…and solutions. “ With every day that passes, the message becomes more important. De-signers must really look in depth at how their work can a"ect individuals, com-munities, businesses, jobs, the environment… The list goes on. Victor Papanek, design for good veteran and author of 1971 book ‘Design for the Real World’ ex-plains that ‘The designer must analyse the past as well as the foreseeable future consequences of his acts.’ There have been many theories on how designers should ful#ll their re-sponsibilities, but Berman’s version makes it easy to digest and very practical. Instead of attempting an immediate overhaul of all designers’ ethical and moral practice, Berman starts small. He asks designers to, starting from now, contribute 10% of their profes-sional time to projects that help build a better future, ‘Projects that make things better, not worse.’ This includes designers looking at their practice method and seeing how they could make it a more responsible one. The only question haunt-ing this plan, is ‘will the people who make the pledge keep their promises?’ The concept of designing for good, and Berman’s interpretation of it is the umbrella under which the Social Design Exposed (SDE) will act. SDE will aim to encompass Bernam’s sense of social responsibility in all it does.

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Images courtesy of ‘Do Good Design’ by David Bernam

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Case Study

Project H Design is a #rm based on the theory of design for good, taking Berman’s pledge further and commiting their whole practice to ‘helping repair the world’. Started by Emily Pilloton in 2008, the perfectly timed #rm has grown exponentially since then, undertaking many social design projects with great success. It has, however been a challenge, as social design is not your standard design transaction, explains Allan Chochinov, chief editor of Core 77 and writer of the forward to Pilloton’s book ‘Design Revolution.’ He explains ‘when you are designing something expressly for social good, I’d submit, you’ve changed the bargain between producer and consumer; you’ve added elements of social cur-rency that weren’t there before. Pilloton agrees, saying she started Project H out of, ‘a lot of frustration with the design world.’ She believes ‘We must elevate “design for the greater good” beyond charity and toward a socially sustainable and economically viable model taught in design schools and executed in design #rms…’ and is showing the world that it is possible by cleverly mixing social design with social entrepre-neurship to create a contagious type of design activism. On the hard road to success, Project H Design have been criticised for the ‘Hippo Roller,’ a water transportation device for South Africa. Bruce Nussbaum, design critic, observed that it wasn’t as greatly received when presented to the Asian and Indian community as it was with the Western community and, in ef-fect, suggested it was due to the ‘parachute’ nature of the design. Project H has since then, remedied this and focused much their atten-tion on concerns in their backyard, one of the most interesting being the Abject Object project. It is a ‘design enterprise that supports homeless individuals and shelters through the design, production, and sale of retail accessories made from reclaimed materials.’ Not only does the enterprise provide products that do good, but it also teaches women in the Downtown Women’s Center, a shelter in LA, valuable skills of ‘sewing, production, and business strategies.’ These skills have the ability to empower the homeless women to change their lives by preparing them for a job, or enabling them to set up their own business. SDE will endeavour to follow the example of Project H Design by provid-ing a resource that empowers all stakeholders of social design.

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Images courtesy of www.!ickr.com/photos/projecthdesign

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Research Practice 2Design in Context

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Model

In 1971, Victor Papanek wrote that ‘Design for the Third World’ was one ‘of the #elds that design has neglected’. Since then, this area of design has grown, and is now one that demands an admiration that is extremely enticing to designers. Due to this expansion, however, people are discovering the issues of designing for a country they are not familiar with. Papanek, later in 1984 concluded that remote design ‘will most certainly fail’. Gui Bonsiepe, described with Papanek as a key #gure in the ‘Design for Need Movement’ agreed, saying that design problems cannot be resolved ‘by an outsider coming in for a stopover visit.’ How then, can design avoid the faults and failures of parachute and remote design, yet still assist the countries with arguably the biggest problems? Bonsiepe compromises; ‘Design should be done in the periphery and not for the periphery as a result of some kind of paternalistic attitude of the center to these countries,’ using the term’s ‘periphery’ and ‘central’ to describe what most know as ‘un-developed’ and ‘developed’ countries. This allows designers to take on projects away from the culture they know, provided they design in the same context as the problem. German born Bonsiepe moved to Latin America to live and work after being enthralled by the culture and the design possibilities, becoming a living testimony to his beliefs that ‘Design problems will only be resolved in the local context’.Unfortunately, this is a hard process to monitor, even for the designers; it is almost impossible to determine whether the design is occurring in context or not. SDE will stick with the simplest version of design in context; that of local design.

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Case Study One of the most well known instances of failed remote design is the One Laptop Per Child XO Laptop. Run by fuseproject and MIT, the project had all the resources it needed. Despite this, the project has been highly criticised for not being designed for the context. Bruce Nassbaum, a design critic named one of the forty most powerful people in design by I.D. Magazine, puts together a strong case. He explains the project ‘broke the most important design rule,’ by designing ‘from the bottom up, not top down;’ the project failed to involve the actual consumer until the #nal stages of design. This project was the de#nition of a parachute design, in the end being rejected by the planned Indian recipient organisation as they ‘perceived the e"ort as inappropriate technological colonialism that cut out those respon-sible for education in the country—policymakers, teachers, curriculum builders, parents.’ If the product were to have been designed in context, with a thorough understanding of the product environment, the direction and success may have been completely di"erent. Nussbaum says ‘Cell phones are far more popular as the means to connect to the net in much of the Third World’ so perhaps some-thing of this nature would have been more successful. As it is, some say the current design is more suited to the US market than that of developing countries, as the XO Laptop never met it’s $100 price criteria (it retails at $US188) and is American style technology. Learning from this case study, SDE will ensure that all aspects of the proj-ect will be designed in context. A thorough understanding of the local use of the web will be gained before designing gets fully underway. Also, SDE will focus on Melbourne as a starting point. Because this is SDE’s local area, a greater under-standing of Melbourne is held than any other city. This will enable SDE to ensure that the project caters to the not perceived, but real needs and wants of the us-ers.

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Images courtesy of www.!ickr.com/photos/olpc

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Research Practice 3Integrated Design

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Model

Because the world is changing so quickly, and design is a relatively young profession, the idea of what design is, is constantly evolving. One improvement to design as we know it is suggested by Tony Fry, author of ‘Design Futuring.’ He calls designers to ‘Forget design as a territory and practice that can be laid claim to, stop talking to yourselves (the internal dialogue of design events)… start talk-ing to other people, other disciplines, broaden your gaze, engage the complexity of design as a world-shaping force and help explain it as such’ Design is not an isolated practice. It has an a"ect on everything it touches and visa versa. The design of a kitchen cannot be separate from the culinary arts, as this would result in very poor design. Therefore, they must act together, with knowledge and understanding of each other. As Victor Papanek eloquently says, ‘Dividing lines exist between these (design) areas at present, but the lunacy of these lines is apparent even on the most basic level.’ This is a theory that has already been applied to design practice with re-sults that led to an unexpected and exciting pathway to bigger and better things. Already industrial designers are taking on housing concepts, interior designers are designing furniture and architects are designing interiors. To take this further, designers need to go further a#eld, working on medical projects side-by-side with doctors, patients, engineers and scientists. According to Papanek, integrated design ‘demands that we establish at what level of complexity the problem belongs.’ W must also consider ‘the histo-rival perspective of the problem,’ ‘human and humane factors (values, the inner and outer senses etc),’ ‘social perspective,’ and #nally ‘social groups, classes and societies.’ Although some of these suggestions are less important in this day and age, their core remains relevant. When undertaking integrated design, we must consider what the problem is, how the specialist skills of those involved can be capitalized upon and how the solution can be made to best solve the problem by considering all social and contextual aspects. Distilling this theory further, SDE plans to work with website interface designers to ensure a resource of maximum potential, as well as seeking the in-!uence of as many stakeholders as possible, to ensure the project is relevant to them.

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Case Study

Los Angeles based design #rm, Artecnica, has applied the concept of in-tegrated design to their business plan. They are producing a range of products that are created as a collaboration between ‘a world-renowned designer and an artisan community,’ a combination that has been award winning as well as #-nancially successful. The product line ‘brings traditional craft to a high-design market in enterprise-supporting, sustainable ways.’ The range is called Design with Conscience, attracting consumers the glamorous buzzwords, whilst informing of the more intriguing side. The paired artisans and designers work together throughout the development of the prod-ucts, under the guide of a project producer who ‘provides the logistics, market-ing, and art direction necessary’. The aim has been to create products that em-ploy the skills of traditional handcrafts whilst using eco-friendly materials. The pairing also provides the artisans with ability to become #nancially sustainable, as well as learning how to apply their skills in new ways. On the other hand, the designers learn about the craft process and try to #nd a way to showcase this in the form of a luxury good. Both sides broaden their skill set and become educated in an area they were previously unfamiliar with, and eye-opening and useful experience. This project takes all involved on a journey they could not have made alone. The concern with this project may be that the artisans are losing their original traditional skills by adapting them to better suit the western luxury good market. In order to be fully responsible, all involved should have carefully as-sessed the potential negative a"ects of the project, and taken action to combat it. SDE will endeavor to capitalise on the opportunities presented by in-tegrated design to do something new and unforeseen that could not be done alone. It will attempt to ensure that it does so in a socially responsible manner.

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Images courtesy of www.artecnicainc.com/Products/Design_with_Conscience

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Annotated Bibliography

Artecnica Inc. (2009). “Design w/ Conscience.” Retrieved 20/09/10, from http://www.artecnicainc.com/Design_with_Conscience.

The online shopfront to Artecnica, this resource provides an informative description of the ‘Design with Conscience’ range that explains the collaborations, as well as many useful images. Berman, D. (2009). Do Good Design: How Designers Can Change the World, Berkeley, Calif. : AIGA : New Riders, 2008, c2009.

A realistic method of allowing designers to be more socially responsible. It clearly explains what ‘de-sign for good’ is. Explains why design in context is so important, and why remote/parachute design often fails. Contains an oath for the reader to make. Fry, T. (2009). Design Futuring: Sustainability, Ethics and New Practic. Oxford, Berg Editorial Of-#ces. Design Futuring systematically presents ideas and methods for Design importance in overcoming a world made unsustainable.

Provided an explanation of how design is limited by it’s self saturation, suggests how co-design could be a way to solve this problem. Nussbaum, B. (2007) It’s Time To Call One Laptop Per Child A Failure. Bloomberg Businessweek A criticism of the design direction of the OLPC project, highlights why parachute design often doesn’t work, and why it is important to design ‘from the top down’.

Nussbaum, B. (2010) Is Humanitarian Design the New Imperialism?

A re!ection on the non-western worlds’ negative reaction to western designers trying to solve their problems. Uses Project H Design as an example. Project H responded, resulting in a very interesting conversation.

Nussbaum, B. Do gooder Design and Imperialism Round 3: Nussbaum Responds.

Nussbaum’s response to Project H’s response. Here he explains himself further.

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Papanek, V. J. (1985). Design for the Real World: human ecology and social change. Chicago, Chi-cago, III: Academy Chicago.

The relevance of this book is unnerving due to it’s original publishing dates. Explains areas of design that, almost 40 year later, still need improvement, and explains how this could be done. Gave insight into what integrated design is and how it can assist design. Pilloton, E. (2009). “Project H Design.” Retrieved 27/07/10, 2010, from projecthdesign.org.

Site contains information about the design "rm as well as details of each project with photos. Demon-strates why local design is successful. Pilloton, E. (2009). Design revolution : 100 products that empower people New York, NY, Me-tropolis Books: D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers.

A collection of social design case studies. Detailed explanation of the ‘Hippo Roller’ and ‘Design with a conscience’. The foreward written by Allan Chochinov was also used. Contains a oath for the reader to make. Pilloton, E. (2010) Are Humanitarian Designers Imperialists? Project H Responds.

Project H’s response to Bruce Nussbaum’s criticism of their international designs. Pilloton admits that things could have been done better, and as a result the "rm now focuses locally.