Critical clues: Design Thinking towards Utopia
Critical design and the application of design thinking towards a utopian future
World peace, heaven, perfect, egalitarian, socialist are just some of the many terms that have been used to describe the term ‘Utopia’. Each of us would love to live in a world that we independently consider perfect.
Developed initially in Sir Thomas More’s 1516 text, Utopia, the concept of Utopia is the pursuit of an ideal society.
Design thinking towards utopia?
From a modern day designers perspective, the Jetsons cartoon is a glimpse of what the future could be when all of the worlds problems have disappeared as a result of technology. This techno-utopian cartoon focuses on the ways in which designers could use technology to improve our day-to-day lives, but is this a perfection worth pursuing?
Taking the Interaction Design Foundation definition of Design Thinking that:
Design Thinking is a design methodology that provides a solution-based approach to solving problems.
We can see the possibility that if one were to apply Design Thinking to each of the worlds problems one by one, we would eventually end up with a utopian society. However that is a very shallow way of placing it.
According to Jan Michl 1990, the dream of functional perfectionism is an impossibility. This has been backed up my own design processes where I undertook a comparison of artificial and natural design as part of my university studies, and clearly found that despite the best intentions of design, there are always un-intended consequences.
A utopian society is much more than simply advanced technology, as H.G. Wells postulated in 1906 that “the creation of Utopia’s, and their exhaustive criticism, is the proper and distinctive method of sociology”. Continuing this same path we question whether a technological utopia will be able to create a perfect world in areas such as ecology, economics, and religion?
As with Francis Bacon’ novel New Atlantis, this article focuses on the benefits of a design approach to the improvement of society thorough scientific (technological) design research. Whilst design thinking may produce the solution to a problem, we are able to use critical design to enlighten a population and provide a new frame of reference.
The Critical Approach
Just as popular texts like Brave New World and 1984 have caused reflection on the societal order and encouraged a new frame of thinking in regards to these aspects. We are able to use critical design to ensure that a utopian vision is one that is not just utopian from one frame of reference. Sociologist Max Weber in his 1905 text “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” discussed that society had lured itself into an “iron cage” where “Material goods have gained an increasing and finally inexorable power over the lives of men as at no previous period in history”, yet despite this servitude our society is a nullity that “imagines that it has attained a level of civilization never before achieved.”.
Looking at this materialistic servitude from a design perspective, one might consider that design itself is locked in servitude to the desires of this materialistic society. However through application of critical design we are able to create reflection on this society, and perhaps free it from the shackles of materialism. It is perhaps Orwell’s 1945 piece ‘Animal Farm’ that offers a comparative reflection of a society which begins to realise its naivety, with a focus on the different political systems competing in the early 20th Century.
In Stealing is good, but Context matters I discussed the social inclusion implications of a machine that essentially provides free coffee. Looking at this same machine from a critical design perspective we are able to see that it reinforces the affirmative design idea of a materialistic society where a trade must be performed to receive a benefit. Instead of breaking down the barriers of social inclusion we can see how the design itself is making a statement regarding societies expectations of social interaction, and the dystopian narrative where your value to someone else is the benefit that they are provided themselves. Whilst this concept may not have caused reflection on these aspects, we can see from one frame that individuals may have questioned the societal hierarchy and their position within it (if they were interact with individuals from a different social sphere).
With critical design, we can use the frame of critical theory to critique even itself and its criticism of popular culture as discussed in ‘Ernst Bloch and Utopian Critical Theory’ (Howells, 2015). Critical design has considerable application for the design of this future world and the artefacts we interact with.
A Utopian Education?
At the university where I am pursuing my Masters of Interaction Design we have performed user research that has shown that stress is an aspect in the lives of many students. Additionally that many people associate socialising as being a more important aspect of university life than that of studies. Whilst with Design Thinking we may have looked for solutions to a defined problem of stress, with critical design we create a frame of awareness about the insights gained from our research.
Our design team was able to reproduce a fictional dystopian based crime scene where students passed away from stress (and high workload). This design was not solving a problem around stress, yet aimed to cause reflection around the issue where students are coming to university for an education yet are encountering large amounts of stress. The impetus for reflection around this installation aimed to create discussion around the direction of education. We can compare this situation to the utopian educational system described by Plato in Laws, where students pursue virtue as a utopian ideal (Plato, 360). Thus the team has undertaken the application of a distinctive method of sociology and caused reflection upon the very nature of the education system and its stress causing aspects.
Our research additionally shows that students make a clear distinction between leisure and their studies. It is clear that this utopian vision of separated worlds is in direct polarity with Thomas More’s Utopia in which the utopian vision of is one which has leisure time being intertwined with that of studies (More, 1516). We can conclude that utopia is in the eye of the beholder.
Whilst critical design can be used to spark reflection and consideration, there is not a black and white polarity of design thinking and critical design. Critical design can be taken alongside a techno-utopian approach to design thinking. With the current discussion regarding the robotic jobs future, and the capitalist domination of society we are in an age where much technology causes significant discussion around societal implications.
Critical design and the blockchain
Take for example the block chain, which is a technology that has been used to create a currency (BitCoin) with no central bank and which is virtually impossible to forge. This technology has both solved a problem, but also created reflection around the capitalist society we live in. Dunne and Raby stated that critical design should be non-commercial (Dunne et. al., 1999). However I contend that examining this from a social constructionists approach we can see that their reality forming idea of design not being critical in a non-commercial sense is shaped by their immersion in (and rejection of) the materialistic culture identified by Weber.
From one frame we can see that the introduction and growth of BitCoin is taking lead from Bacon’s scientific approach to continued utopian growth. BitCoin has provoked discussion surrounding societal structure, with much focus on capitalism and with it a reframing of the political systems such as socialism, communism and fascism which seemed dead after the cold war.
Whilst BitCoin could have been developed using the design thinking methodology, it is easy to see how it is critical as a design, and as such could easily have been produced as a commercial version of a critical design. The newspaper clippings in the image above support this notion that it is itself sparking reflection on the current state of society.
So what can we learn?
The application of the critical design approach within the design thinking framework lends itself to several actionable points:
- Context is critical
A critical design approach takes into consideration all aspects of the context, from social through to physical. Understanding the wider context is crucial to ensuring a solution has to solve an identified problem, but also consider the wider effects of this solution in the context.
2. Remove the problem if possible
Design thinking focuses on solving a problem. With a critical design approach it is possible to examine why the problem is occurring, and design to remove the problem, rather than implement a fix.
3. Solve for the user, design for society
With an initial design thinking approach to a set problem we can look to examine solutions to the identified user problem. However by combining with critical design we look to ensure that the designed solution is beneficial to society as a whole.
4. Question everything
If a dog says it is a dog. Question it. Its only a dog from one frame. In another frame it may be a father to a young puppy.
5. Utopia is a process
We as designers cannot achieve a utopia for everyone. But by ensuring our designs consider all influences we can certainly bring all of society one massive leap closer to it.
Conclusion
Design Thinking as a methodology for improving society has its merits, but in combination with critical design the two construct a progressive society that is more in tune with ideals of Plato and More. Whilst Utopia may not be an achievable outcome, we are able to implement a critical design approach that ensures a society aware of its direction and not blindly following as showcased in Orwell’s Animal Farm.
Design has a place in society to not just solve problems, but also to seek to improve peoples awareness of their world. Design should improve the sociological as well as the physical. By taking into consideration the 5 points above, we as designers can lead the world towards a utopia that we all find great. On top of that I leave you with a diagram that shows all the areas in which interaction design can be applied. Critical design and design thinking are not the only considerations. By considering all of these areas below we can ensure that society moves towards utopia in a variety of spectrums. But that is another blog post …
References:
Bacon, F. (2014). New Atlantis / Sir Francis Bacon (New edition / edited by G.C. Moore Smith.. ed.): Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
Howells, R. (2015). Ernst Bloch and Utopian Critical Theory A Critical Theory of Creativity: Utopia, Aesthetics, Atheism and Design (pp. 29–43). London: Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Michl, J. (1991). On the Rumor of Functional Perfection. Pro Forma 2, 1(1), 67- 81.
More, T., & Miller, C. H. (2001). Utopia / Thomas More new translation with an introduction by Clarence H. Miller. New Haven, CT: New Haven, CT : Yale University Press.
Orwell, G. (1954). Animal farm / George Orwell illustrated by Joy Batchelor and John Halas. New York: New York : Harcourt, Brace & World.
The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. (1958). New York: New York Scribner. Wells, H. G. (1907). The So-called Science of Sociology.
