Thinking about Open Design
A couple weeks ago my Design Strategies and Methods professor asked us to write a page describing our “Worldview.” No one knew what a worldview was and we later found his vagueness was intentional, but I took a stab at it in hopes of finding some personal design philosophy I never had. Here’s a little excerpt mind you this is still pretty rough:
Design can become more open by making its strategies and methods more accessible, thus growing understanding and influencing better products, architecture, and artifacts.
We need to document our processes in ways that scale to meet the challenges of diverse situations. Design frameworks could offer clearer choices leading to stronger, more personal solutions. Frameworks in the open source development community have proven invaluable at lowering the barrier to entry and making programming more accessible.
If a couple can configure the house of their dreams, guided by an architects framework, they’ll lead a more comfortable life. If a mom can design a car that fits her unique needs, the car designer can focus more time on perfecting the framework which enabled her to do so.
One size does not fit all and designers need to be the harbinger of choice.
When I wrote this I felt a tad naive and unsure of what I was saying but after sitting in on Frames: Notes on Improvisation and Design by Liz Danzico this morning at Interaction 10 I felt the tiniest bit of validation :)
More thinking on this to come.
Related tags: design, interaction, worldview
Comments
Nathan Borror http://nathanborror.com/
I should add, a lot of companies already offer frameworks of choice. Consider the Arduino project which enables people to build electronics without having a background in electrical engineering, messenger bag companies like Timbuk2 which give buyers more control over color and configuration, and car manufacturers like Scion that make choice a selling point.
So there isn’t anything new here, but I don’t think this idea is being discussed or pushed enough.
Dan Kletter http://esophagus.com/
I agree and I feel that our current ideas about frameworks are too limiting to allow enough possibility of diversity in scale.
Jeff Croft http://jeffcroft.com/
Good stuff, man.
Nathan Borror http://nathanborror.com/
Liz just posted a link to her slides and notes on the talk. I also updated the link above.
@Dan - You’re right and I think framework flexibility will come from things like 3D printers by simplifying the economics of machining and manufacturing.
Travis Fleck http://www.travisfleck.com/
Just came across this chair which seems to be created along the same line of thinking.