hexad of
ESSENCES

Design needs to be understood, embraced and practised from diverse perspectives. Often, a singular perspective on design is propagated as the dominant view or paradigm of design. Design not only shapes our world and solves our most pressing problems but also stages mesmerising experiences, constructs speculations of what the future might behold, and sets boundaries of what design can, and, more importantly, cannot do.  The nature of design is revealed through its ess(ence)’s: Shaping, Solving, Staging, Speculating, Setting and Service.

Design Is SOLVING

Our world seems to be mired in problems with no end in sight, such as climate change, poverty and war. Many would argue that these problems are created by us. But what is a problem? The philosopher Weldon offered an interesting epigram: “a problem is a puzzle placed on top of a trouble”.64 In this puzzle called life, we design solutions to take away our troubles. These solutions take on various forms, for design operates in distinct contexts, at differing scales, for diverse peoples and their problems.

The things we design have to find a place in our world. They have to be useful and usable, not to mention desirable.65 The artefacts we design can bring joy to users. In the everyday, this delight is embedded in their functionality, i.e. the way we use objects, interface with services or experience systems. There is a certain elegance attached to the solutions of problems or, in plain terms, to how things work – a neatness with which they fit66 into a given context. Often, the best solutions seem so obvious and commonsensical that they appear to be hidden in plain sight. Solving is about making things meaningful. When solutions find meaning, they can open up a whole new market for a business. If they don’t resonate with their users, they may fall by the wayside.

The designer’s approach to solving issues can be characterised by an overindulgence or zealousness in the belief that design can solve all of the world’s problems. This evangelical attitude is something to beware of. The interconnectedness of our world implies that a solution for someone somewhere can create an unanticipated problem for someone elsewhere. In solving problems, the ends do not justify the means.

Design Is STAGING

Look around you, and you may see problems everywhere. Is that so, or is it an illusion? It is possibly your world view some may say, for “the mystery of life is not a problem to be solved; it is reality to be experienced”.67 There is beauty in the everyday – in its routines, chores and mundaneness. If experience is a continuum called life, then it matters that we design things that significantly enhance our everyday lived experience, such as a well-designed space to inhabit, a well-designed chair to sit on, a well-designed mattress to rest on, well-designed footwear to walk in and countless such paraphernalia. Ironically, these are some of the most difficult to find well-designed objects.

Design not only shapes experience but also makes it memorable. For instance, the hospitality industry travels great lengths to construct experiences that are memorable. Was your last meal at a restaurant memorable? Was it the food, the customer service, or the ambience? Perhaps all of them? Design has the ability to draw you in and engage you, i.e. keep you there. Services designed to be consistent and reliable in their delivery lure customers to repeat the experience.

Designers stage experiences for consumption – discrete, standalone, isolated. The commodification of experience demands standardisation. This is easier said than done, for no experience will ever be exactly the same.68 But experiences that are staged have to be repeatable. User experiences such as an application on a mobile device can be tightly controlled across devices and platforms, worldwide. Attempting to achieve that with food served in different restaurants around the world, however, is a tall order.

Carefully crafted and curated, staged experiences are designed to immerse their audience. Immersion is characteristic of an experience as is the evocation of an emotional response. In staging experiences, the challenge is not the production of the technical effect but the arousal of the intended affect. In a staged world, design can degenerate into experiences that are ‘tacked on’ or, worse, artificial and pretentious. Design leaves an indelible impression on the mind. Its ability to be etched in memory speaks of a certain quality of design – timelessness.

Design Is SPECULATING

Design is speculative by nature, for if one knew the outcome of the act of design beforehand, it would defeat the purpose and joy of the process of design. For just as the future is not fixed, one cannot fix the outcomes of the act of design beforehand. Not only is the future not fixed, but it is also in a state of flux, just like the present. At any point, the present will become the past, and the future will become the present. In a future present, the prescience of the designer’s speculations will reveal their capacity for imagination and their ability to acutely observe current phenomena and extrapolate them into alternate futures.

Amongst the possible, probable and plausible futures, the designer projects their vision of a potential future. While dystopic, utopic and myopic narratives are all too common and far too easy to construct, defuturing69 is a common characteristic of many such future scenarios. Design, however, “is concerned with how things ought to be”.70 This ‘oughtness’ is about the design of preferable futures, which raises the pertinent question of whose futures is the design intended for. What kind of future would we like to inhabit and inherit? Design visions that are imaginative, appropriate and desirable captivate their audience and can even compel others into action, individually or collectively. Futuring does not merely imply an extension of the present but a radical or revolutionary departure from the past. As a prospective activity, design can not only provoke and raise critical questions but also instil hope in its audience.

Design Is SHAPING

We shape materials into artefacts. We obsess over our possessions, and in their use form relationships with objects, which in turn shape us. Design constructs new meanings, whether through a logo that shapes a brand’s identity, an advertisement that influences consumption or a gesture that shapes our interactions with devices. As form-givers, designers shape the appearance of objects, seducing our senses and shaping our desire to possess things of beauty. Materials are thus shaped into artefacts, which in turn shape meanings and relationships, which in turn shape culture.

Shaping is characterised by its pervasiveness, precariousness and, undesirably, by its perverseness. The pervasiveness of shaping is evident in the fact that everyone shapes everything everywhere, while its precariousness lies in the extreme pursuits of our shaping – our quest to shape the highest, deepest and farthest places on earth and even beyond. The perverseness of shaping is visible in the unseen, unknown and unanticipated ways in which we knowingly alter the world, ignorant of the graveconsequences that we are giving shape to in the process.

Design Is SETTING

Setting is very much about the cultivation of an attitude. Homo sapiens are territorial and excel at designing means and methods of keeping others out, but they are weak at drawing boundaries for themselves. Hence, understanding the limits of design is the first step in boundary setting.71 These are boundaries of engagement, moral and ethical boundaries of what design ‘ought to do’ but more importantly what design ‘nought to do’.

In practice, boundaries manifest in two ways: external and internal. External boundaries are those that the designer terms as constraints, such as time, money, environmental restrictions and socio-cultural sensibilities. These are contextual in nature. Constraints can also be self-imposed. These are internal restraints, such as ethical or moral stances.72 The act of boundary setting or negotiation of boundaries is very personal in nature, for the external and internal interact to inform the designer’s decisions. To engage in an act of design is to confront one’s own ideas and ideologies. Design apropos can only emerge when mores are addressed in context.

Design is SERVICE

Transformations or shaping is dualistic in nature. Design (and technology) shapes the world, which in turn shapes us. Shaping or the urge to change or transform is pervasive, i.e. everyone shapes everything everywhere; it is the agency of individuals and groups that differs. The extent to which we can shape our world and its pace are increasingly leading to unseen, unknown and unanticipated consequences.

Shaping can also be deliberately perverse. All of this has led to a climate of precariousness and fragility that is characteristic of our times. Transformative design thus cannot ignore the fundamental nature of how design transforms the world. Design is in service of not only humanity but all living species and the planet(s), and not subservient to the powers that may be. At its best, design is in the service of Gaia.73

  1. read Emam Hoosain in What are Mathematical Problems? (2004). 
  2. read Elizabeth Sanders in Converging Perspectives: Product Development Research for the 1990’s (1992).
  3. read Christopher Alexander in Goodness of Fit (Chapter 2) in Notes on the Synthesis of Form (1964).
  4. read J. J. Van Der Leeuw in The Conquest of Illusion (1928).
  5. Phenomenologically speaking.
  6. Design can make and unmake the future. Read Tony Fry in Defuturing (2009).
  7. read Herbert A. Simon in The Sciences of the Artificial (1996).
  8. read Werner Ulrich in A Brief Introduction to Critical Systems Heuristics (CSH) (2005).
  9. A dietary stance for example. Read Tristam Stuart in The Bloodless Revolution: Radical Vegetarians and the Discovery of India (2006).
  10. read James Lovelock in Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (1979).