From a presentation at IIT ID's In the Loop speaker series, given on 31 March, 2015. Our roles as designers are dependent on language. We rely on verbal, visual, and temporal languages in order to communicate our work. As our jobs become more than just “design”—from choreographers of natural interfaces to policy makers—there is an inherent conflict with what it means to “practice design.” We are defining ourselves (and being defined) by a term that is overextended. How should we refer to ourselves, and what should the world make of us? With a new period of design dawning, previous notions of strategy and craft are blurring. We have been given permission to do meaningful work; at this prime moment we must clarify ourselves to establish the continuous integrity of our field. We must articulate the difference between practicing responsible design and simply making.

1. Finding beauty in the invisible, and the changing role of the designer.
POST-DESIGN

2. ?

3. ? ?
What, really, is
toasting?
How else might
toasting happen?

4. Why do we toast
bread?
Can we
fundamentally
change toasting?
???

5. How can a toaster be
made differently?
?

6. ?

7. 3 Questions

8. I CURRENTLY WORK WITH:
I HAVE WORKED WITH:
STUDIO D RADIODURANS

9. What do you do?”“

10. “What do you do?”
“I’m a designer.”
“Oh, like clothes?”

11. “What do you do?”
“I’m a designer.”
“Oh, like a graphic designer?”

12. “What do you do?”
“I’m a designer.”
“Oh, like ___________?”

13. “What do you do?”
“I’m a designer.”
“Oh, like a UX designer?”

14. ?

15. We’re like management
consultants with hands.”
“
- KENDRA SHIMMELL
(MANAGING DIRECTOR @ COOPER; TOTAL BADASS)

16. [the designer] accepts the
responsibility of his position as
liaison linking management,
engineering, and the consumer and
co-operates with all three.”
“
- HENRY DREYFUSS
(DESIGNING FOR PEOPLE,1955)

17. DESIGNER = LIAISON

19. INTELLIGENCE
GATHERING
Searching the known
environment for the
condition calling for a
decision
1
DESIGN
Inventing, developing
and analyzing
2
CHOICE
Deciding on a
particular course
3
Decision-Making:
a Designer
Research Synthesis
Design/
Implementation

20. DESIGNER = DECISION-MAKER

21. THIS GUY IS
DESIGNER ≠ PROBLEM SOLVER

22. Craft
(form-giving)
Strategy
(conceptual)
WHAT WE’RE SUITED TO MAKE

23. WHAT WE’RE SUITED TO MAKE
CompsBrand

24. WHAT WE’RE SUITED TO MAKE
Task Flows &
Use Cases
Policy

25. I spend time with people trying to
understand their problems and then
work with them to identify and
develop creative solutions -
sometimes it's an idea or a model,
sometimes it's a process, sometimes
it’s technologies…”
“
- JASON ULASZEK
(UX FOR GOOD)

26. DESIGNER = ENVISIONER, MAKER,
REDUCER OF COMPLEXITY

28. English is the problem!

29. Funny, everything design/work to me, is in English.
The working language is set by the literature, the
videos and most of all the tools/programs that we
use: and English is the common language.
Since moving back [to Sweden], no client has been
so small that only Swedes are involved- emails and
deliveries are in English.”
- KAJSA, SWEDEN / JOOYOUNG, KOREA
“

30. Well, what do I do?

31. The proportion of a solution needs to balance with
its problem: we don't need a battery-powered
pooper scooper to pick up dog poop, and we don't
need a car that gets 17 MPG to, well, we don't need
that car, period. We have to start balancing our
ability to be clever with our ability to be smart.
They're two different things.”
“
- ALLAN CHOCHINOV
(COME ON,YOU GUYS KNOW WHO HE IS)

32. DESIGNER = MAKER OF THE SMALLEST APPROPRIATE THING
(WHICH CAN BE NOTHING AT ALL)

33. QUESTION 1:
What do you want to do?
How much do you care about defining it?
I want to be a designer where there was no “design” before.
I want to make as little as possible.

35. What did you
actually design?”
“

36. For details of the work on the “on-the-go” financial
product ecosystem designed for Proximity Design in
collaboration with Visa and Studio D, see
Proximity’s Post on the concept.

37. By what can you be
judged as a designer?”
“

38. TO US:
“design” = process

39. TO A LOT OF THE WORLD (ESP.IN THE STATES):
“design” = artifact

40. “well-designed”
BEAUTIFUL
“oh, that’s pretty.”
CONSIDERED
“that took a long time to
get right.”

41. When I went to school, design was a
thing I made.
Now, it’s more like, ‘How am I
thinking about _______ in my
work?’”
“
- STEVEN EGGERT
(DESIGNER & PHOTOGRAPHER)

42. Mechanical
Complexity
Digital
Complexity
Social, Cultural
& Political
Complexity
PRODUCT SOFTWARE
COMPLEXITY
Where user-
centered design
dies.
POLICY

43. If what I’m making is
100% invisible, am I still
a designer?

44. ?

45. What will be the long-
term impact of this
toaster’s existence?
?
?

46. QUESTION 2:
On what are you being judged?
By whom are you being measured?
I want to be measured on the outcome of my work,
rather than the beauty of the artifacts I create.

47. What am I
doing here?

49. ROMANCE : RESPONSIBILITY

50. WHY DO I DESERVE TO BE HERE?

51. WHY DO I DESERVE TO BE HERE?

52. WHY DO I DESERVE TO BE HERE?

53. “the power of design”
We have to earn our right to
practice what we do - most of all
when we practice it on others.

56. ?

57. ? ?
Does the world
really need another
toaster?

58. In 1995, you would charge
$250,000 for a website, and nobody
would bat an eye. Now you can
make one for $100.”
“
- COLETTE VARDEMAN
(UX DIRECTOR @ RACKSPACE)

59. What am I doing here,
and when should I leave?

60. QUESTION 3:
When should you say no?
What do you stand for?
I want to make myself and my impact as little as possible, and
always have people who keep me in check.

61. ?
This is yours.

62. Don’t be defined by
design - the word, its
process or its artifacts.

63. Thanks.
@serota
holler@laurenserota.com