What is Critical Design? Is it a kind of design method — using the critical thinking to evaluate or to conduct design?

It reminds me of an article I have read about critical thinking. Maybe it has some connection between these two concepts, I think. American scholar Ennis says that critical think is a very complicated thinking activity. It needs at least two key skills: questioning spirit and rational thinking ability. It’s a helpful quality so that we can see the nature of things and distinguish right from wrong though independent reflection. It’s also a good way to draw inferences and get different thoughts.

When we talk about critical design, we may think of applying the critical thinking ability to the design activities like creating art, craft and innovation. Fortunately Prof. Anthony & Fiona shared their viewpoint about Critical Design: It uses speculative design proposals to challenge narrow assumptions, preconceptions and givens about the role products play in everyday life. It is more of an attitude than anything else, a position rather than a method. These really help me to get the vague idea as i know critical design is based on the thinking process. It’s a designer’s attitude.

Let’s take an example from Dunne & Raby’s project. They noticed that as time goes by, one day robots will do everything for us. Then they thought about the situation that might happen in a critical way. What would happen? What would be the relationships? So they created this sentinel robot furniture to discuss the personal and secret information in the future. They also explored new forms of furniture might evolve in response to future technological developments.

All these are impressive. They really gave some hints about my final critical design project. I’m just thinking with the high-speed development of the tech, everything will be well-designed, everything will automatically operate, then people just stop moving and thinking. Is it convenience or forfeit? what if we have no feelings and experience?