Uday, I love that you are interested in and thinking about design philosophy...
Interestingly, this coincides with a number of conversations I know are happening within larger, established organizations where design has, traditionally, been absent, added like an afterthought, enjoyed some success and now faces an identity crisis as the scope of proposed influence becomes greater, more designer from different backgrounds are brought in and all are expected to redefine themselves. I can't tell you how many times, in the past few weeks, I've been "seen" as a unique and alien creature - "So, you do design but you're also an anthropologist...so what do you do?" I would absolutely LOVE to see this continuum mapped out in 3-dimensional space such that one can really understand the complexities that exist out there. And of course, many more levels of detail would be awesome, too. And let's see...geospatial web, anyone? I'm sure you've already seen this but it might spark some ideas if you haven't: http://informationarchitects.jp/web-trend-map-4-final-beta/ Cheers, Christine On Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 5:25 PM, Uday Gajendar <ugjndr...@me.com> wrote: > FYI, this may be of value to those of you, like me, trying to grapple > and make sense of the recent (and ongoing) Cambrian-like explosion of > new design activities, fields, or domains of practice that has caused > some angst and confusion among those who affiliate themselves with > "interaction design". > > How to organize it all and make sense of it? > I offer this as one helpful aid. > > A Design Typology Continuum: http://bit.ly/vYbBl > PDF File: 355K > > Some may recall I previewed this with a few folks at Interaction'09 > in Vancouver. Basically this poster is a personal attempt at making > sense of the craziness of the design world lately, heavily based upon > Richard Buchanan's "Four Orders of Design", which succinctly maps > out the development of design moving from "posters and toasters" > into the new challenges of social interaction, information > architecture, service design, and managing as designing, in the > business arena and beyond, into general culture. I'm not sure of > Buchanan's latest thinking (his model is at least 10 yrs old now) > but I've updated the language to reflect much of thinking going on > around "design thinking" and "transformation" and "digital > product design", for example. > > Some things to observe in this diagram that warrant further > pondering: > > * The movement (Left to Right) from concrete, materially crafted > results ("things") towards increasingly abstract, immaterial > outcomes ("activities") that elude easy pointing and saying "this > is the result" > > * Relatedly, increasing degree of complexity and "wickedness" of > problems, entering realms of business, society, and culture > > * The materials of design evolve from tangible (inks, matter, > pixels(?)) towards intangible (values, attitudes, lifestyles), > further fuzzying conventional design boundaries and provoking "what > is it designers do?" sorts of questions > > * I deliberately made the visually richest area to be in that middle > zone between 3rd and 4th Order, as the place we're at now, with so > much potential and excitement and lots of happenings going on now in > Design at-large. I sense there's some cycling going on, with methods > and approaches across the Orders feeding and impacting each other. > > * I think these need to be highlighted in some way: Digital Product > Design (for lack of better phrase) and Social Change, so I created > sub-clusters, positioning them near the 3rd / 4th Orders. These seem > to be the "hot" areas now deserving attention, from Web > 2.0/SaaS/multitouch to designing for eco/green, or Third World, etc. > > * The final part at the far right, hypothesizes what may be next, > "massive change" (borrowing Bruce Mau's phrase) featuring truly > wicked problems...perhaps the ultimate field of design is focused on > ethics, involving transcendental & universal values of > culture/humanity/society to tackle huge problems impacting govt, edu, > poverty, human rights, etc. I don't know, but I sense that may be on > the distant horizon (or how the trajectory is aiming) > > Any constructive feedback or thoughtful suggestions appreciated. Or > simply take it as it is :-) Believe me, I'll keep evolving it over > the years...Enjoy! > > (CAUTION: This diagram isn't for everyone :-) And in NO WAY am I > suggesting yet another stupid title-war or definition spew-fest > (especially after the last few weeks' threads!). That's not the > point. The purpose is to offer substantive fodder for discussion, > thoughtful reflection (privately or collectively), and perhaps even > an enlightening of minds as of yet unaware of design's broad reach > and potential...particularly Interaction Design as a philosophy and > perspective of humanist action, and the boundaries thereof.) > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! 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