Design has been, still is, and will be important--think of the civility bestowed upon the human race as crude gestures evolved into the finesse of deliberated language; or the medieval dagger morphing into an all-purpose spork. From another perspective, think also of why Design should be important--for example in the experiential differences between an intuitive and a convoluted user interface for today’s multi-tasking road warriors with cellphones and Ipods; or in the ethical differences between a more livable city and a less livable one by planning through civically responsible design principles.
Even though Design is responsible for much human good, Design was, and still is, the cause of much human misery as well--be it the invention of the DDT pesticide or the prescribed use of DDT in agriculture. Design is important precisely because Design can affect human affairs, sometimes in drastic and irreversible ways affecting not only the current generation, but also the unborn one. Thus to design entails great responsibility, and all great responsibilities are at the same time, also matters of great importance for those who must bear these responsibilities.
However, the more important questions are, how Design will be important, and to whom such importance would be registered. The answer to the latter question is more obvious than the former, though it is a much more contested one. Clearly, Design will be important to enterprises focused on incessant innovation and value creation. But Design will also be important for those who design, and to those who must live with the effects of such designs: policy-makers, planners, industrial designers, engineers, but also you and me. In short, Design will increasingly become important to everyone--though in contestable degrees varied by the distribution of its profits to risks--as the growth (and conflicts) of complex civilizations will subsequently demand an unequal commitment to deliberate human decisions and actions, hence Design.
On the other hand, the former question of how Design will be important does not lend itself to be answered easily, for futurology is risky business. However, the first evidence of the importance of this question is becoming clearer: contestations of dwindling natural resources for all kinds of productive (and industrial) design ventures; the greying of productive populations amid threats of strange diseases and the promise of restorative genetic therapy; and the growing uncertainty demanding constant Design intervention everyday in our individual lives, organizations and societies--for cruise control is no longer an option. All these emerging developments are occurring in an ecological world whose resilience for any untoward repercussion of Design actions has been greatly compromised, and in a complex social world where the effects from independently made decisions of Design are often found to be consequentially intertwined.
We have designed ourselves--intentionally but also accidentally through these same intentions--into this current height of civilization, growth and progress; but at the same time and in the same way we have also increasingly designed ourselves into a very real quagmire of stagnation, waste and collective human misery.
This paradox of Design demands an answer. And this answer is tantamount not only to the prosperity of individuals, enterprises and nation-states, but it will also affect the chances of survival of the human species in the years ahead. Design is clearly important; but the question of how important can only be approached jointly by designers and their constituents in the contingent future of the present.
Design has been, still is, and will be important--think of the civility bestowed upon the human race as crude gestures evolved into the finesse of deliberated language; or the medieval dagger morphing into an all-purpose spork. From another perspective, think also of why Design should be important--for example in the experiential differences between an intuitive and a convoluted user interface for today’s multi-tasking road warriors with cellphones and Ipods; or in the ethical differences between a more livable city and a less livable one by planning through civically responsible design principles.
Even though Design is responsible for much human good, Design was, and still is, the cause of much human misery as well--be it the invention of the DDT pesticide or the prescribed use of DDT in agriculture. Design is important precisely because Design can affect human affairs, sometimes in drastic and irreversible ways affecting not only the current generation, but also the unborn one. Thus to design entails great responsibility, and all great responsibilities are at the same time, also matters of great importance for those who must bear these responsibilities.
However, the more important questions are, how Design will be important, and to whom such importance would be registered. The answer to the latter question is more obvious than the former, though it is a much more contested one. Clearly, Design will be important to enterprises focused on incessant innovation and value creation. But Design will also be important for those who design, and to those who must live with the effects of such designs: policy-makers, planners, industrial designers, engineers, but also you and me. In short, Design will increasingly become important to everyone--though in contestable degrees varied by the distribution of its profits to risks--as the growth (and conflicts) of complex civilizations will subsequently demand an unequal commitment to deliberate human decisions and actions, hence Design.
On the other hand, the former question of how Design will be important does not lend itself to be answered easily, for futurology is risky business. However, the first evidence of the importance of this question is becoming clearer: contestations of dwindling natural resources for all kinds of productive (and industrial) design ventures; the greying of productive populations amid threats of strange diseases and the promise of restorative genetic therapy; and the growing uncertainty demanding constant Design intervention everyday in our individual lives, organizations and societies--for cruise control is no longer an option. All these emerging developments are occurring in an ecological world whose resilience for any untoward repercussion of Design actions has been greatly compromised, and in a complex social world where the effects from independently made decisions of Design are often found to be consequentially intertwined.
We have designed ourselves--intentionally but also accidentally through these same intentions--into this current height of civilization, growth and progress; but at the same time and in the same way we have also increasingly designed ourselves into a very real quagmire of stagnation, waste and collective human misery.
This paradox of Design demands an answer. And this answer is tantamount not only to the prosperity of individuals, enterprises and nation-states, but it will also affect the chances of survival of the human species in the years ahead. Design is clearly important; but the question of how important can only be approached jointly by designers and their constituents in the contingent future of the present.