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In continuation of our project to design the next design firm, we were attempting to articulate our personal visions for the future of what design might be when we stumbled upon three perspectives for trying to understand why we design. We separated these into design to advance the discipline of design, design to benefit organizations, and design to benefit individuals. These are interrelated, but have distinctions, I believe. We realized that a debate about these perspectives might last a few days, so we cut it short and moved on. However, I’d like to note the beginning of the discussion and throw out some further thoughts.

Design to advance the discipline is interested in establishing design as a more widely recognized approach to solving certain (wicked) problems. While it was noted in our meeting that this view has the potential for getting up its own ass and is largely academic, given the characteristic humility of design, perhaps not. A byproduct of advancing a discipline that is concerned with moving from the current state to the preferred state by human-centered means is that individuals and organizations would inherently benefit.

We didn’t really talk about what the perspective of designing for organizations and individuals might be. But I’ll take a stab at it. Designing for organizations focuses on the success of the organization as a whole and is concerned with the survival of said organization. Design is an approach to accomplish this end, but again the focus is the organization. Individuals may benefit from this endeavor, though they are not the focus. The discipline of design may benefit, but it is not the focus. Designing for individuals concerns itself with the individual first. The goal is to help people and design is a means to do this. Organizations may benefit, but that is not the goal. Again, the discipline may benefit, but that is not the purpose.

The distinction I see between the three is in the end purpose. There are other ways to help organizations and individuals other than design. If the focus of ones designing is to benefit those two, I view that as different from endeavoring to promote the discipline of design because it will inherently benefit those two. Perhaps this is too subtle a distinction, or completely silly to debate. Or maybe there’s something interesting there.

Next Friday is thesis paper presentation day, where each second-year graduate student has 10 minutes to present his or her thesis paper and five minutes to be interrogated about it. This is a major milestone of this year. Lucky me, I get to present first!

In preparation, I had to submit the thesis title and abstract for the program. This was difficult because, while I have around 8,000 words written, the argument as a whole is still being shaped. Naturally, I spent the whole day coming up with the title and the 250-word abstract, finishing exactly at 5 pm. Or you might say that in typical designer fashion, I worked solidly until the absolute last second tweaking it.

Here’s the final tweak.

The Thinking Behind Design

For the past several hundred years, science and humanities have enjoyed prominence in our culture and education. Science and a scientific approach to solving problems have received bias in our educational systems and our work. But increasingly, design is being recognized as a valuable approach to solving complex problems and creating inventive solutions. However, understanding what designers do—the thinking behind design—is not fully understood. Design is still often thought of as a black art rather than a rigorous discipline. If design is to advance as a discipline, understanding design thinking becomes paramount. Design is a relationship between the design way of thinking, the process of carrying out that thinking, and the embodiment of the thinking and the process within the designer. The process of developing design thinking is a design process in itself. It therefore may behoove designers to recognize designing oneself as a designer as fundamental to improving design ability. Understanding design thinking will also help designers articulate their value and communicate what is it they actually do in a way that demystifies the process and instills a sense of trust in their solutions. This paper examines how designers think and the relationship between design thinking and the design process to better understand what designers do, the rigor of their process, and the value of skilled designers.

And if you want to compare, here are the previous iterations:

• Version 3
• Version 2
• Original