Design less
Something I've been contemplating of late is the need to design less. I don't mean this in the sense that we need to create less stuff, as true as that is, but more so with reference to the act of designing - we need to design less. To disambiguate this statement, I offer this working definition of Design - 'The act of bringing about a specific kind of harmony, in the context of a desired outcome, through the forming of connections'. Now, this is by no means a definition that is fully resolved, but I think it offers a different perspective on what we do as designers.
The problem of compulsive design is deeply linked with the notion of the designer as a creator, and a fixer. There is an underlying hubris here, which, in spite of our best intentions, we tend to bring into everything we do. When we design with a creator mindset, we tend toward newness. Newness tends to bring with it more 'stuff', and where stuff is not relevant, it calls for transformation in behavior, which consumes massive amounts of energy, with the potential to create anguish and distress in a system. While some degree of discomfort is often necessary for meaningful change, I think we inflict it upon the systems we design for with perhaps unwarranted ease. What if we designed not for maximum change, but for maximum impact through minimal change? I posit here that 'newness' carries no intrinsic merit; that there is little evidence that 'new' means 'better'. As per the working definition that I offered earlier, 'This has been done before' should read like an opportunity, not a problem. Of course, this poses a challenge to the economics of design practice, or indeed anything. Within our current economic paradigm, creating money usually involves creating something new. In this, design has been and continues to be complicit.
When reflecting on this, Dieter Rams comes to mind. Specifically, the 6th of his commandments for good design - 'Good design is honest. It does not make a product more innovative, powerful, or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept'. While this was articulated largely in the context of industrial, consumer-focused design, it inspires me to ask the question - 'What is it to design with more honesty, in our times?'
I suspect the answer may have something to do with designing less.
