Can't we all just get along? Throw out a definition of design and suddenly everybody has an opinion...and the RIGHT opinion of course.
As I read articles and blog posts such as Defining Design, greenonions.com's pieces about Lakovian analysis, Bruce Nussbaum's Are Designers the Enemy of Design, and the compilation of responses to that article published by NextDesign, the common thread seemed to deal with blame of some sort. "We can't be responsible for...." "You really can't blame designers for..." "The true responsibility lies with..." or some variation of any of these was repeated time after time in the comments section or within the writings themselves.
Is it not true that each of us feel that OUR profession is the most important (whether or not we ever admit that out loud). Teachers decide to teach because they feel it is important. Doctors care for patients because they feel it is important. Activists give voice to issues that they feel are important. Designers design because they feel it is important. And each of these folks are right! Why then, do we spend so much time and energy trying to elevate our profession over that of another, knowing that each is vitally important to the improvement of our society? Instinctively, I jotted various snide remarks and come-backs in the margins of my copy of Enemy as I read. While composing my response however, I realize that throwing out those remarks would be about as productive (and as never-ending) as those "Oh yeah? Well you...." arguments that my sisters and I engaged in as children. Likewise, simply shifting the blame as illustrated in the previous paragraph leads to an infinite loop of stagnation, or worse, regression.
Whatever innovation might be, it is not achieved through these types of divisive conversations. Tim Brown of IDEO said it best in his response to Enemy when he stated that new
"functionally, emotionally and economically compelling alternatives [...] will be the result of talented interdisciplinary teams."Not the result of journalists. Not of designers. Not of doctors. Not of teachers. Of teams. In this context then, is the definition of design really even important?
