Design is a word which describes a great breadth of human activity. It covers three main areas:
1) Things – the products, or the physical results of the design processes.
2) Individual problem solving process - Design-thinking and iterative work, on one’s own.
3) Collaborative problem solving process - The social process of conceiving and planning the best compromise between the goals and means of a group.
The field, or profession of Design incorporates all three, but within popular design discourse, there has been more focus on the forms and form-giving process than on the social process of collaboration.
I believe that the field is really defined by the Designer-client, or the Designer-collaborator relationship. Most professional Designers are required to work with other people to help reach mutual goals. This relationship involves social processes of communication, deliberation, negotiation and reaching agreement. This social aspect of the design process could be greatly improved, and the field could be rapidly advanced if this became the focus of more of our discourse.
What if Design students were trained to first love the inter-personal dialogue that collaborative design demands? What if they were trained specifically in active listening, group dynamics, verbal communication, mediation and negotiation? What would the field of Design look like if Designers had more training in the social processes of collaboration itself?
It’s worth considering.
Adam
