Book Review：Design, When Everybody Designs: An Introduction to Design for Social Innovation

Title: Design, When Everybody Designs: An Introduction to Design for Social Innovation Author: Ezio Manzini

Topic: Design in Social Innovation

Style: Academic introduction with practical case studies

Why choose this book

Choosing to read Design, When Everybody Designs was not out of impulse or serendipity. First of all, the title of the book directly sparked my interest in reading it, because when I read the title a series of questions and speculations arose. I wondered what would happen to society when everyone started designing? What can be designed? Is it true that all people have the ability to design? Secondly I thought that this book might be highly relevant to what we are learning in class. Because in class we delved into the five stages of design thinking: empathy, definition, ideation, prototyping, and testing. These stages are more than just the process of designing a product or service; they are an approach to problem solving, innovation, and even social innovation. I wanted to learn more about how design thinking is used in practice. Manzini’s perspectives and practices as a leading authority on social innovation and sustainable design will provide me with a fresh perspective on how design is not just limited to products or services, but can drive social change and progress.

Overall impression

I was impressed by Design, When Everybody Designs, not only as a book about design, but also as a book about social innovation and sustainability. As I read, I came to realize that design is not just about creating beautiful products or services, but it is a powerful tool for social change and solving real problems. The book contains many examples and case studies that show me how design thinking can be applied to solve real social problems. I will give more examples in the main insights section below.

Main insights

Diffuse Design vs. Expert Design

The most important and interesting argument the author makes in this book is that everybody designs. From everyday choices about what to have for breakfast or how to celebrate your birthday, to the more complex designs of websites, clothes, buildings, public services, jet engines, business models, systems of governance. Design is a universal human activity, like storytelling or putting things in categories. In a world of rapid and profound change, everyone is designing. “Everyone” means not only individuals, groups, communities, companies and associations, but also institutions, cities and entire regions. “Designing” means that all these individuals and collectives are forced, willingly or unwillingly, to utilize all their design capacities, to develop their own life strategies and to put them into practice. With this kind of diffuse design in which everyone can participate, society as a whole can be seen as a giant laboratory in which unprecedented social forms, solutions and meanings emerge and create social innovation. It is because everyone designs that ‘expert design’ exists, and they have the cultural and practical skills needed to integrate and enhance the design capabilities of others (non-experts.) Diffuse design takes the design process out of the hands of the experts or elites, and makes it possible for a wider range of people to participate in design decisions. Doing so helps to make design more democratic and inclusive, allowing more voices and perspectives to be heard and considered.

How to Define Social Innovation — A Case Study of Ainonghui in Guangxi, China

At the beginning of chapter 1, the author defines “innovation” as the use of innate human creativity and design talent to invent and create something new when faced with a new problem: this is called “innovation”. So we can borrow the above definition and understand “social innovation” as: in order to solve the various problems in today’s society, use the innate creativity and design talent of human beings to create some new things. In Chapter 1, the author cites Ainonghui in Liuzhou, Guangxi, China, as an example of sustainable innovation design that involves everyone. It started when a group of citizens in Liuzhou, Guangxi, realized that they could not buy good and safe food (organic food) in the general market, and the villagers were worried about the lack of sales of their agricultural products. Ainonghui was founded by a group of citizens and farmers to produce and sell agricultural products. Ainonghui sells traditional farming products and at the same time spreads the knowledge of organic farming and promotes sustainable lifestyles in the city. The two groups of citizens and farmers recognize the complementary needs of each group, cross cultural barriers, eliminate their prejudices, and find innovative solutions to problems. This case is a true example of sustainable innovation design.

Design for resilience

Another interesting point in the book is that in today’s society, simplicity is always seen as the highest value, but the author argues that we should stop simplifying and embrace complexity (and the locality) in order to produce better designs for our society. The authors take the example of an ecosystem. The fewer types of organisms that exist here, the more fragile it is. By analogy, we can say that societies based on a single principle and a single operating strategy, they will be fragile systems at risk of catastrophic collapse. Therefore, in order to make human civilization more sustainable, it is necessary to increase the complexity of technological systems. It means that we should promote the coexistence of solutions based on different logics and different rationales. Furthermore, we should consider the complexity of energy, production, market, economic and cultural systems as the “genetic richness” of artificial ecosystems. As if Australia’s wealth comes mainly from its rural economies, which profit from the land rather than from design-led activities. If Australia and its political leaders are serious about encouraging innovation, then surely designers must play an important role in creating a society that moves away from its dependence on the primary sector and instead seeks socially innovative approaches to design.

Conclusion

In his book Design, When Everybody Designs, Ezio Manzini delves into the relationship between design thinking and social innovation, providing us with a fresh perspective that redefines the role and value of design. This is closely related to the knowledge and methods we have learned in this class on design thinking. The five stages of design thinking — empathy, definition, ideation, prototyping and testing — can help us not only design a product or service, but also help us solve complex problems and drive social innovation. I think design thinking should become a habit for everyone, getting used to a rapid iterative approach, validating and optimizing our solutions to ensure they meet user needs and solve real problems.