About Design and the Influence of it on the World (for good)

Many things that we use today were designed at a time when the system was different, the world did not have so much capacity to make things, so much plastic, so much chemicals, so much access, so much means in the hands of so many, so many of us.

Industrialisation has changed all that. With means to product faster and more with less human effort.

How can your designs make a difference to the world, lend a healing touch to the world hurtling towards self-destruction? 

There was a time when people produced by hand, from things they got from the world around. Now we make things, material, medicines and even food. We were part of the natural eco-system, living and dying by the natural rules. And then we began our separation from it, to bring more certainty to our lives. And we were rather successful, through building rules and laws and processes and systems and things to counter the ravages of the natural world. Things and tools and systems, became the extensions of ourselves, elevating our powers. As these systems grow in power and spread through the world, they are now beginning to dominate our world. There was a time when the natural rules dictated our behaviour now these things we’ve created shape our behaviour. While it has brought success in survival and success of our species, it has also eroded some of the naturalness and peace in us. 

How can we win back our happiness and reconnect with the natural world?

Because these systems and things are designed to outdo natural laws, there is a need to design super systems to manage their creation, preservation and destruction. Lest they overwhelm us. They already have. Where such super systems do not exist or fail to deal with them in their entirety, it is wrecking havoc, e.g. in the waste disposal of non-degradable stuff that is finding its way into the seas and rivers and land and into our food chain.

Starting a Revolution

The task itself may seem onerous, impossible even for the individual with seemingly little power, capacity and influence, but we can start a revolution. From where we are. And maybe we’ll find people who would support, be part of it or take the revolution further. Social media and internet is making of spreading these ideas easier.

And we have in Design & Design Thinking the tools for creating, remaking, reordering influencing and engaging, in short, the means to start and spread the revolution that we so desperately need. And we won’t be doing a favour to the world but only responding to what is so desperately needed in these times.

We need to redesign things now (like e.g. the flush tank & toilets and running water taps) the waste of resources and negative impact on the world is aggregating towards unsustainable levels, but also that the process by which we manage their life cycles of creation, maintenance and renewal (not disposal, that’s what is causing the problems). Indeed how we design these things changes the way we make them and interact with them (like e.g. how we keep the toilet clean without pollution and waste).

The central and centralizing ideas

Many good design elements don't make for a great design. There is nothing more discordant and ugly than a design that lacks a central idea. A central idea acts like a constraint that brings in the necessary discipline to the design.
But a central idea is not enough, what is necessary is a centralizing idea. The centralizing idea functions like an aligning force that bring all the different pieces of a design together into a coherent whole.


Honda's 'All Forward Design" is a great example of this idea .

Doing everything is no strategy

Making a long list of things, taking care of all possibilities, listening to everyone, doing everything ...doesn't constitute a strategy, neither does it make for a design, nor does it reflect intelligence...it takes intelligence to make things simple. It takes courage to do only a few things.
More often than not, failure is a result of doing too many things.
More often than not success is a result of doing fewer things very well.

Design Evolves

If the 7 Series BMW or the New E-Class Mercedes are a great piece of design work, it is a result of nearly a hundered years of evolutionary design work.

The lastest models from these companies are an improvement on an earlier model that was already very refined design.

It would be quite unlikely that a designer given a 1950 model of the BMW as the base to improve upon (with no other new design input) could produce a design that looked like the 2010 model.

Big steps and jumps are indeed possible in design work but the basic nature of designing remains evolutionary.

Design for the life cycle

First there was design for Fashion

Then there was design for Manufacturability (high volume - low cost)

Then there was design for Quality

Now we need, design for the Life Cycle.

What happens over the life cycle of a product or service, from raw material to renewal and/or death. What are the impact of the product or service on costs, life and environment over its entire life cycle, will/should drive design.

iPhone - Design is the difference

Most of the pieces of technology and manufacturing methods that go into making of an iPhone are also available to other handset manufacturers. Design is the difference.

Purpose drives design choice

The iPad has already sold over 2 million units in the first few weeks of its launch. Remember the tablet PC? (sorry! maybe you own one).

In comparison to the Microsoft's tablet PC, the iPad has a more focused purpose - that of browsing and viewing therefore it lends itself to a greater design sophistication and excellence. It is the trade off (the choice of not doing some things, of leaving somethings out) that creates the room for greater sophistication in the direction of what you choose to do.

A good design is more likely when the purpose is defined in a simple coherent way.