Design of the Past, Present and Possible - D4D

We travel 50 years in the past and 500 years into the future to examine the long arc of design. Along the way, we’ll uncover our anxieties about the future, explore frameworks that help us think (and design) beyond vision, and develop a better understanding of what it means to understand.

Opening keynote for the Designing for Digital Conference on March 9, 2020 in Austin, TX.

Transcript

1. Cassini Nazir · Design of the Past, Present, and Possible · Designing for Digital Conference · 9 March 2020
   Cassini Nazir
   Clinical Associate Professor
   UT Dallas
   @cassininazir
   Designing for Digital Conference
   Austin, TX · March 9, 2020
   

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2. Cassini Nazir · Design of the Past, Present, and Possible · Designing for Digital Conference · 9 March 2020
   COMPLEXITY UNDERSTANDING
   ANXIETY
   TODAY’S TALK TAKES THREE SHAPES
   

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3. Cassini Nazir · Design of the Past, Present, and Possible · Designing for Digital Conference · 9 March 2020
   ANXIETY
   

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4. Cassini Nazir · Design of the Past, Present, and Possible · Designing for Digital Conference · 9 March 2020
   In the future there will be no more designers.
   FINISH THIS SENTENCE
   

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5. Cassini Nazir · Design of the Past, Present, and Possible · Designing for Digital Conference · 9 March 2020
   In the future there will be no more designers.
   

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6. Cassini Nazir · Design of the Past, Present, and Possible · Designing for Digital Conference · 9 March 2020
   In the future there will be no more designers.
   FINISH ANOTHER SENTENCE
   

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7. Cassini Nazir · Design of the Past, Present, and Possible · Designing for Digital Conference · 9 March 2020
   In the future there will be no more designers.
   The designers of the future will be
   the personal coach, the gym trainer,
   the diet consultant.
   FINISH ANOTHER SENTENCE
   

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8. Cassini Nazir · Design of the Past, Present, and Possible · Designing for Digital Conference · 9 March 2020
   In the future there will be no more designers.
   The designers of the future will be
   the personal coach, the gym trainer,
   the diet consultant.
   

   View Slide

9. Cassini Nazir · Design of the Past, Present, and Possible · Designing for Digital Conference · 9 March 2020
   In the future there will be no more designers.
   The designers of the future will be
   the personal coach, the gym trainer,
   the diet consultant.
   PHILIPPE STARCK
   2008
   opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/starck-raving
   

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10. Cassini Nazir · Design of the Past, Present, and Possible · Designing for Digital Conference · 9 March 2020
    a provocation
    PHILIPPE STARCK
    2008
    Alessi Juicy Salif Citrus Squeezer (1995)
    

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11. Cassini Nazir · Design of the Past, Present, and Possible · Designing for Digital Conference · 9 March 2020
    LARRY KEELEY
    1999
    New creative software programs
    will make designers obsolete.
    IDCA: International Design Conference in Aspen (1999)
    

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12. Cassini Nazir · Design of the Past, Present, and Possible · Designing for Digital Conference · 9 March 2020
    It is just the cognitive limits on the
    number of interactions a designer can manipulate,
    which make the unaided designer obsolete in the face
    of the large complexes of requirements he meets today.
    CHRIS ALEXANDER
    1962
    C. Alexander & M. Manhein, The Design of Highway Interchanges. Cambridge: Department of Civil Engineering, MIT, 1962.
    

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13. Cassini Nazir · Design of the Past, Present, and Possible · Designing for Digital Conference · 9 March 2020
    no more designers
    2008
    designers obsolete
    1999
    the unaided
    designer obsolete
    1962
    

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14. Cassini Nazir · Design of the Past, Present, and Possible · Designing for Digital Conference · 9 March 2020
    HIGH
    LOW
    ARTIFACTS TRANSFORMATIONS
    COMPLEXITY
    EXPERIENCES
    THOUGHTS
    ACTION
    THINGS
    SYMBOLS
    Logos, signs Tools, objects Interactions, services Ecosystems, platforms
    The field of design is changing.
    Buchanan’s four orders of design (2001) demonstrates the field’s past and possible futures.
    Problems of
    Communication
    Problems of
    Construction
    Problems of
    Action
    Problems of
    Integration
    Participation
    Interaction
    Interface
    Transaction
    Buchanan, R. (2001) Design research and the new learning. Design Issues, 17(4), 3–23
    4
    3
    2
    1
    

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15. Cassini Nazir · Design of the Past, Present, and Possible · Designing for Digital Conference · 9 March 2020
    20th century design
    FROM
    Making the complex manageable;
    Rendering the complicated meaningful.
    Simplicity of form, function,
    materials, and manner.
    TO
    21st century design
    THOUGHTS
    ACTION
    THINGS
    SYMBOLS
    Logos, signs Tools, objects Interactions, services Ecosystems, platforms
    Design of systems
    increasingly complex
    <
    Problems of
    Communication
    Problems of
    Construction
    Problems of
    Action
    Problems of
    Integration
    Buchanan, R. (2001) Design research and the new learning. Design Issues, 17(4), 3–23
    

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16. Cassini Nazir · Design of the Past, Present, and Possible · Designing for Digital Conference · 9 March 2020
    the unaided
    designer obsolete
    1962
    designers obsolete
    1999
    no more designers
    2008
    

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17. Cassini Nazir · Design of the Past, Present, and Possible · Designing for Digital Conference · 9 March 2020
    no more designers
    2008
    designers obsolete
    1999
    the unaided
    designer obsolete
    1962
    participants
    2017
    

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18. Cassini Nazir · Design of the Past, Present, and Possible · Designing for Digital Conference · 9 March 2020
    Design has evolved from the design of objects
    both physical and immaterial, to the design of systems,
    to the design of complex adaptive systems.
    This evolution is shifting the role of designers;
    they are no longer the central planner,
    but rather participants within the systems they exist in.
    JOI ITO
    2017
    pubpub.org/pub/designandscience
    

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19. Cassini Nazir · Design of the Past, Present, and Possible · Designing for Digital Conference · 9 March 2020
    Design jobs that will “die”
    User Experience Designer
    Visual Designer
    Design Researchers
    Traditional Industrial Designers
    Chief Design Officers
    Design jobs that will “grow”
    Virtual Interaction Designer
    Specialist Material Designer
    Algorithmic/AI Designers
    Post-Industrial Designers
    Design Strategists
    fastcompany.com/3063318/5-design-jobs-that-wont-exist-in-the-future
    Experts and oracles predict some design jobs will “die” …
    5 Design Jobs That Won’t Exist In The Future
    from design leaders from frog, Artefact, and IDEO
    Cassini Nazir · Information Architecture for All Our Senses · UIE
    

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