Design in Transition, Systems of Change

Abstract

Design in Transition We can observe the design field to be, at large, in the midst of self-reflective change of priorities and positions (again). I am not sure whether this reflexive repositioning is cyclic or just follows the trends toward design for broader societal impact, with less tangible outputs. Design education agendas are redefined following major declarations, but also socioeconomic shifts that facilitate the disclosive space for new directions. There were significant revaluations of design purpose around 2000, 2008, 2015, and 2025. The post-2000 period nurtured an evolving discourse toward transformation, which subsided by 2010, while service design and systems approaches emerged—to some extent inspired by the over-reach of transformation design. New discourses emerged around social innovation and futuring for long-term sustainability around 2008, as well as the Kyoto declaration from Cumulus, with a clear direction for human-centred design. These new directions synchronised well with the change in student sentiment and prospects in response to the global financial crisis, and graduate design programs expanded significantly. These new designers led the early wave of public and social innovation labs and strategic design practice. However, I am less sure that our mission of human-centredness fulfilled its potential during the same era that drove the formation of massive internet and social media platforms. These firms hired many designers, and perhaps they were “designed well” but for what ends? Did we ever fulfil on the promise of human-centred design, or was it primarily a design movement, in which human interaction was theorised, empathised, and “centred?” A foundational manifesto of the era was Microsoft Research’s Being Human (Harper et al., 2008), which theorised the development of Human-Computer Interaction through 2020. Is there a similar design manifesto for today?