Are we product designers, graphic designers, experience designers, interaction designers, strategists, information architects…? We have so many names to call ourselves, but for many of us there is no one descriptor that defines what we do. (and I argue that, to be successful, you should never consider yourself held within the boundaries of just one of these terms) We ultimately end up picking a label, just to open the doors of communication so that we can further explain ourselves.

Once that door is opened, where does this presentation of yourself go? Do you describe yourself as an engineer of tangible products or a designer of an experience? How do you present strategies, visions, and ideas as tangible, real products?

Tangible product need
Typically we design things based on a need. “I want to access my files from a remote location.” “I need to take my bike on the train, but it is too big.” “I want an easy way to share my photos with friends and family.” These are needs and solutions were designed to remedy them.

Those are simple and straightforward examples but if we are critical designers we challenge the preconceptions and expectations that a user may have in those examples. It is a challenge to produce a solution that solves the problem for that instant, but it is our job to do more than that.

Vision and Assimilation
We want to inspire people to not only use a product (ie: our tangible solution), but introduce it into their every day lives by integrating it into a bigger vision or system (ie: our larger idea). The user may not have known they had this greater need or perhaps the system already exists elsewhere in their life, but they never saw a connection in how this current need and existing system are related.

In order to introduce this sort of infrastructure we not only need to design the tangible product (or know that it already exists), we need to design the entire system and idea around it. If we do not lay out the infrastructure for the tangible product to be successful, then it will ultimately fail. The only compromise to this is coming up with the idea that uses existing infrastructures and existing products. In many cases we can reuse/reassign a system that exists for another purpose, but one that people already have integrated in their lives. The end goal is assimilation. Assimilation of the product, person, and system while also keeping in mind how all variables may change at any given time and outward influences may effect them as time progresses.

Communication Challenge
Communicating how that big idea or vision is an actual and tangible thing that works and solves needs, is our challenge. How do we as designers communicate this and how do we represent ourselves in this challenge to multiple audiences, cultures, generations? This is our responsibility, to ourselves and to our visions that can change the culture that we live in. Making that vision and system feel tangible if a product does not exist or an infrastructure is not already in place is a wonderful challenge as well. This is where ideas of the future begin and where new needs are envisioned.

Considering ethics and aesthetics, paired with real-life scenarios in real-life cultures… From making tangible things to proposing models and prototypes… How do we communicate this ever-important production of ideas and position ourselves as responsible enough to carry them out?

Some Inspiration:

Dunne & Raby
Dunne & Raby use design as a medium to stimulate discussion and debate amongst designers, industry and the public about the social, cultural and ethical implications of existing and emerging technologies.
http://www.dunneandraby.co.uk/content/projects

Paola Antonelli
View her profile and presentations on TED
http://www.ted.com/speakers/paola_antonelli.html