"If design, as a broad field, really does want to start doing some good in the world, it is essential that design develops a clearer voice in public discourse. We need to argue the case for design’s importance throughout education as an integrated practice and be rigorous in understanding the context in which we operate. That means looking outward, not naval gazing. A glance through the abstracts of a great deal of research journals and conferences points to the latter. This is a terrible irony given the fact that many of us practice human-centered design research that expressly aims to avoid the effects of designing from within ivory towers."
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In Design Research and Education: A Failure of Imagination? British designer, researcher and educator Andy Polaine makes a powerful case for the failure of our academic institutions to produce the creative thinkers our future really needs. It’s a long piece, and well worth the read, particularly his argument that the gap between design theory and design practice is not merely detrimental at an academic level.
We have sold what we do as magic at the cost of hiding our thinking process and when we hide our process we can no longer articulate it, teach it or give it the value it deserves.
Seems to me that the responsibility for imagining and implementing a future that is not bankrupt in terms of economy, politics or culture lies with those who can temper the apparently hyperrational forces that currently dominate business with the ability to see further, imagine more, do better—and explain it all convincingly to those same hyperrationalists. Seems to me, as Polaine puts it, the challenge for educators and designers to stop squabbling about semantics becomes ever more pertinent.
