IDSC Thought - Everyone is not a designer
by petermeIn his talk yesterday, Bill Buxton declaimed that “everyone is not a designer!” It might seem like an obvious thing to say, but there’s actually quite a few folks out there who claim that everyone *is* a designer, in that everyone is involved in shaping the world they live in.
In our book Subject to Change, we claim that design needs to become an organizational competency, and that design needs to be seen as an activity that everyone can engage in. This could be taken to mean that we believe “everyone is a designer.” I think it’s more nuanced than that. Not everyone is a designer… but everyone can (and probably ought to) participate in design.
The role of the designer has evolved. No longer The Creator with all the ideas, the designer is now more of a facilitator, bringing people throughout an organization (and across organizations) together, and getting ideas out of their heads. The designer also has a role in honing, shaping, and executing on these ideas. I guess what I’m saying is that there’s still plenty for designers to do, but designers will need to evolve their practice a bit.
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May 27th, 2008 at 8:54 am
Bah. I am one who will agree that everyone who wants to be is a designer (too many are driven by other needs, or just live with the status quo). \
What the interactive world is missing is what we used to call Art Directors. As a design manager, I’ve done this in the interactive space. Its a different skill set from designing, and /it’s/ the one where you are a facilitator. I always said my job back then was being a bridge between marketing and development; sure I employed designers, but /my job/ was the relationship management.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:35 am
Buxton made this same claim at Interaction08.
We had this discussion a lot at the CMU School of Design. And many design authors, Bryan Lawson, Erick Stolterman, for example, do say that everyone is a designer. The distinction is that not everyone is a professional designer. This is important for designers who might feel like saying everyone is a designer devalues their skills. By saying everyone is a designer, it’s an acknowledgment that everyone is capable of contributing to the design process and likely already practices some aspects of design in their lives, as design is a fundamental human skill. Again, not everyone is a professional, and bringing different stakeholders into the design process will not suddenly mean that professional designers are designing themselves out of a job. The stakeholders will still need to focus on their area of expertise, but may walk away with a better appreciation of design. The role of designers is thus both as facilitator and educator.