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Understanding "designerly" qualities helps students to spot problem and tackle them in
creative and expressive ways
Singapore's Nanyang Technological University/Wikipedia
During course reviews with students at the Austin Center for Design, where I am a
professor, our faculty saw a concerning pattern. Many of our students were inhibited,
some even fearful, of actually making things. Luckily, they were seeking advice and
direction on how to use their hands and actually experiment.
But the problematic part was that they were students at a design school. We actively
recruit and accept those without deep design backgrounds because of the other skills and
experience they bring to our program like business, science, engineering, education,
social work, or simply their intellectual curiosity and adeptness. We do this with full
confidence that we can leverage our own design training to help them along. The
expectation at our school is that students won't be creating just beautiful objects; they'll
create beautifully smart and socially impactful ones.
But, the fear of literally making these designs was a bright red flag for our faculty.
Students often traced their inhibitions back to childhood when they first grew conscious
of their teacher and peers' judgment. One student vividly recalled what it was like to
have a teacher title his drawing for him to avoid inevitable confusion from grown-ups.
His "making trauma" was intensified when he was in fourth grade and one of his
paintings mistakenly got put into a first grad art show. He didn't win.
Sciences, Humanities, and ... Design? The
Case for a Third Pillar of Education
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1 of 5 14-06-2014 10:03
This condition is even more widespread the higher you go up the corporate ladder. At
frog, we often engage our clients in visually creative exercises to tap their knowledge
about a domain and strengthen our partnership in the design process. But, in three
different collaborative work sessions that I've facilitated with clients in the past year, I've
been told outright at the beginning: "I'm not good at this, so don't expect much."
In a 1979 research project at the Royal College of Art, Professor Bruce Archer referred
to design as the missing "third area" of education; the first two areas were considered the
sciences and the humanities. Later, in a small book, Designerly Ways of Knowing,
educator Nigel Cross made a formal case for the addition of design to our general
education, namely the K-12 curriculum. But, he was careful to point out the tricky
nature of such a proposition. Cross argued that design, as an area of study, suffered from
a legacy of being a technical vocation, where one is "trained" to be a designer, often
through an apprenticeship of some sort. Its aims are extrinsic, meaning a student is
equipped to perform in a specific social role such as an architect capable of competently
designing a building. But general education, in addition to being non-technical, consists
of intrinsic goals which contribute to an individual's self-realization and basic life skills.
For instance, many of us learned the principles of math and use them to pay our taxes,
but didn't become mathematicians. And, we read Shakespeare to learn about comedies
and tragedies and the use of language, but didn't become playwrights.
In this context, theoretical understanding takes priority over "the how." But, to be a
designer you need both forms of knowledge. With this in mind, Cross called for a
"fundamental change of perspective" regarding design, if it were to be a part of general
education. He asserts that an education in design must have value in and of itself and not
just be influenced by extrinsic motivating factors such as getting a job.
If our students (and our clients for that matter) had benefited from a general education in
design, would they be so apprehensive about the act of making things? What if that
student's teacher had used a different tactic to present his work to the public, one that
didn't lead to a crippling self-consciousness about making his visualizations real?
It's not for lack of talent that he and others don't naturally draw or make something. In
fact, they're often really good at it when they try. Would a general education in design
have relaxed his inhibitions and taught him to love what he makes no matter what?
Perhaps this kind of education, with its intrinsic values, can develop "designerly"
qualities and knowledge in people over the course of their formative years: help them
develop an understanding and ease with the fundamentals of image and form, give them
the skills to spot a wicked problem and the desire to tackle it, provide them with
confidence in expressing their ideas, and instill the conviction to see their inventions to
fruition. After all, we may be afraid to do our taxes, procrastinate paying our bills, or
dread writing that email to a co-worker, but we do them anyway because of our lifetime
of knowledge and experience with such social and cultural norms.
>
4
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JON FREACH is design research director at frog. He has a 14-year background in user
experience research and interaction design, and his writing has appeared in design mind
and Interactions magazine. He lives and works in Austin.
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UpperDecker 2 years ago
As a design professional (Aerospace Engineer, Specialty Interiors) I can't disagree more
with this article ...
The "General Education in Design" is what used come from woodshop, art class,
welding, etc. Becoming a designer, (or even an engineer) is shaped through experience
and yes ... failure. This used to be called apprenticeship... where design school is just a
start.
I can see how design has become trendy, and a good way for schools to turn a buck. The
quickest way to ruin the field is flood it with people who don't have a resume of getting
their hands dirty, and are not willing to spend years learning from their peers (i.e.
apprenticeship).
5
Reply
BBadger 2 years ago
Some teacher in 4th grad stuck your painting into a 1st grade show? Traumatized?
Get over it.
Maybe these students simply aren't fit for being designers in the real world. Design is
less about how you feel about your work, and more about how others feel about it.
Rejection, criticism, and the growth that comes with them are all part of being an artist.
You're not doing these kids favors by sheltering them from the way the real world
operates, especially in an industry where your success is literally made through your own
ability and perseverance.
3
Reply
IntriguedToo 2 years ago
What poor writing!
Reply
Natasha Sinutko Morgan 2 years ago
At least in part, the root of some of your students' discomfort may be in the education
they've experienced--and the lack of the experiential aspect of it. You do hint at this ... but
it seems that to participate in hands-on design, you need to have experience in directing
your own work. Some come by this naturally (and many designers may deem themselves
more authentic if that's the case), but most do not, especially if their
primary-->elementary-->secondary education does not follow this approach. If we
continue at least in the U.S. to have a testing/standards emphasis over an experiential
and critical thinking emphasis, you may just see these mindblocks in your students--and
potential future colleagues--becoming more and more entrenched. What you speak of is
in some models of education, e.g., Montessori and Waldorf, but more and more, not in
the public schools systems of the U.S, except as exemplified by the exemplary teacher --
but it is not systematic. This growing gap in education doesn't just impact design--it
impacts one's ability to productively problem solve in general. I guess what I'm saying is it
isn't so much a need for "design" as the 3rd pillar, but to have the skill to direct your own
work, and to find fulfillment in your work and its progression v. achieving the "desired
result" of a "standard."
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