Bill Moggridge – What is Design.

Design is many things, it is mercurial and outrageous, witty and charming and all too often, sad and uninspiring. Everything that is made by human hands, is, for better or for worse, designed.

This fact is why design and especially design that make lives better or is very rational and pragmatic and is ultimately the goal of the thoughtful designer. It is easy to fall into the trappings of just aiming for high design no matter the cost or conversely all function and poor form. This is rapidly becoming an outmoded way of thinking. It is blindingly apparent that Resources are finite, the environment will suffer as a result of our quest for the ideal product and the attitude of companies that the importance of ever increasing profit in this area is paramount.

The argument proposed, is that designer must put themselves into the mindset of the end user. Evaluation whether the design works well in terms of usability, ease and pleasurability of use. When a designer does this, they can the sort through problems and inconsistencies in their designs and these factors will push the designs to become

Good ideas can be hindered by poor decisions in the design phase and the resultant decisions that are made influence the outcome and success of a product. An example is the Internet mobile service that allows mobile phone users to purchase goods and services using the device as a digital wallet. Which is in and of itself a visionary idea, but if the implementation is too difficult to resolve for the end user, then the design will be unsuccessful and not received well.

Minimal material usage and re-usage is playing an ever more important and increasingly prevalent role in the jobs we as designers are required to perform which although it introduces a greater level of complexity to an already difficult and problem filled task it also allows a greater sense of satisfaction that the designs being generated are worthwhile and properly thought out.

When we as designers see an issue that needs resolution we require the ability to think laterally and too tease out all areas and factors of a problem whether or not they confront and challenge our ideals. I see a future for design that is implemented in a similar way that scientists work, being that we must start to rely on evidence to justify the decisions that we make regarding the design of things. Evidence based design.