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How Do We Move Past Designer as Hero Dynamics? Dr. Christina N. Harrington Discusses the Power of Co-Design
No argument that much of the design world functions from a place of "we know best" (which was/is typified by Apple's attitude towards consumers) but that's not how I was taught industrial design (RISD ID 1990). Certainly, in the space of "gadget design" it leaned towards stylization and personal expression, but when it came to anything relating to addressing real "needs" it was never about "the designer knows best."
We had classes that specifically emphasized data collection, observation and on-the-ground interviews (including testing of concepts) especially when it came to design around healthcare, products for the physically challenged or elder-care. It's ironic then that this is just the same period that Apple was designing it's first round of products that actually looked at how real people might interact with technology, as well as a time period where business started seeing the value of real "design" in terms of ergonomics and human-centered engineering. To us, that was the point of good design: address the needs of real people, including being willing to challenge one's own preconceived ideas of what those people needed. This was part of the curriculum as well as part of the various open-ended discussions we had with teachers and visiting designers.
But somewhere along the line the cult of Steve Jobs became the more generalized cult of high-priced boutique-oriented technology. That this vision of "design as a means for maximizing profit" become the Defacto vision of industrial design itself is not surprising, but certainly very disappointing.
I might add as well that as early as 1988 both teachers and students were discussing the urgent need to design for recycling, repair and the reduction (if not elimination) of the "shelf to land-fill" cycle of consumer products. We naively assumed that the 90s and beyond would be a new age of "values driven" production where every product would be designed to be easily disassembled and recycled for parts and materials. Little did we know we were on the cusp of the exact opposite trend.