Are designers working within paradigms?

Fuad-Luke begins his section on adaptive capacity within Design Activism (2009) by arguing that in recent history, design has been ’self-absorbed’ and swayed by commercial and self-centred motives (p. 187). His statement is provocative and has inspired further thought into why we as designers are making decisions. Through the development of our latest project, we realized the importance of research-led design, so this essay will examine both our approach and those of Meadows and Monaghan and Just to explore paradigms, and culture in the context of our project.

Within the Macro project, our area of research was technology blindness i.e., lack of understanding, knowledge, or interaction with technology. Our primary research indicated that the over 65s are less comfortable with technology; therefore, we predicted that this demographic would be disadvantaged within a society that relies so heavily on the digital. However, further primary research revealed that this demographic functioned very ably in society and thus could not be said to be at a disadvantage. Our initial premise that technology is required to function in society was not upheld by our research.

Meadows has an offering to develop our design thinking to our project: “The shared idea in the minds of society, the great big unstated assumptions – unstated because unnecessary to state; everyone already knows them – constitute that society’s paradigm, or deepest set of beliefs about how the world works” (1999, p. 186). We were making ‘big unstated assumptions’ about the over 65’s and their requirements, and applying our set of beliefs about how the world works onto their world. Looking at Meadows clarified how critical it is to remain neutral as a designer and it became clearer where and why the project was failing to provide design solutions that were non-digital. Meadows encourages designers to ’stay flexible’ and acknowledge that everyone’s world view is a ’limited understanding’ (1999, p. 188). We revisited our primary research from the perspective of adapting our world view to that of our audience.

Fuad-Luke argues that design should reducing the pace at which we design to create more ‘meaningful but less energy intense’ ways of achieving what the recipient needs (2009, p.194). Fuad-Luke’s call for designers to slow down has had a strong impact on our approach to design. The shift in our basic assumptions regarding technology led to the project attempting to be more ‘meaningful’ by going back to the data and listening more closely to the voices of our participants in our decision-making process.

A project designed ‘meaningfully’ (Fuad-Luke, 2009) does not necessarily mean it will be suitable for all. Ansari (2019, p. 6) questions how a design, even if it has been designed with ‘universally applicable forms of knowledge’ will be received in other places. The assumptions we begin with on a design project may not translate to another design context. Thus, designs have the potential to isolate or exclude potential communities who cannot interact with them. Designers’ first-hand experiences and culture might underpin assumptions that can be a source of bias. When discussing ideas for our project, we were telling stories from our experiences and environments. Monaghan and Just explore Boas’s argument that environment and cultural and physical influences have “a determining effect on the way one views the world” (2000, p. 51). These influences mean that designers cannot be truly impartial, as one’s world views have been shaped by life experiences.

Paradigms and culture can both play a part in shaping what designers unconsciously bring to a project. Evaluating our studio work, I would argue that both paradigms and culture influenced the design discussions, yet there was also emphasis on the research participants’ views, which was the cause for our shift in thinking. I would suggest that we generate ideas within the worlds we are familiar with until we uncover information which generates paradigm shifts (Meadows, 1999).

The results of our interviews informed our design thinking and shaped the outcomes of this project, and the limits of our project reduced the scope of our research. Further primary research would establish whether the influences and assumptions discussed within this essay would have been more relevant to the participants in the project, or whether the adaptations that were made to the design thinking would have remained. There are many ways of looking at a project in hindsight to move forwards, and in my practice, I will acknowledge from this study the influence culture has upon us (Monaghan and Just, 2000) and maintain flexibility (Meadows, 1999) to challenge the paradigms I work with.

References

Ansari, A. (2019) 'Global Methods, Local Designs' The Social Design Reader London, UK: Bloomsbury Visual Arts.

Fuad-Luke, A. (2009) Design Activism. 1st Edition edn. London: Routledge.

Meadows, D. (2008) Thinking in Systems: International Bestseller. 1st Edition edn. White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing.

Monaghan, J. and Just, P. (2000) 'Bee Larvae and Onion Soup: Culture' Social and Cultural Anthropology. 1st Edition edn. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, pp. 48-66.