Designing for others

Design is a purposeful, documented process for responding to the needs and wants of other people. In Unit 1 you work as a stakeholder-centred designer: you start with the people affected by a problem, not with a favourite product idea. The profession is broad.

Architects plan and design buildings; landscape architects plan outdoor places such as parks, streetscapes and school grounds; interior designers shape rooms for use, comfort and atmosphere; industrial designers develop manufactured products such as furniture, tools and appliances; fashion designers create garments, footwear and accessories; graphic designers communicate messages with type, image and layout in posters, signage, logos and packaging; and digital media designers create screen-based experiences such as apps, websites, games and motion graphics.

The professions differ in scale, materials, regulations and timeframes, but all of them explore a problem before developing a response, and many projects bring several professions together.

Design problems also differ. A tame (simple) problem can be clearly defined and has a predictable kind of outcome, such as a label system for classroom storage tubs. A wicked (complex) problem cannot be fully defined, involves stakeholders whose needs conflict, and has outcomes that are hard to predict. Reducing social isolation among older residents of a suburb is wicked: every response changes the situation, and no single answer is clearly right.

Recognising the type of problem tells you how much exploring you must do before you can write a design problem.

The syllabus design process is a version of the Double Diamond (Design Council 2015). It has two phases, and each phase moves from divergent thinking (opening up many possibilities) to convergent thinking (narrowing to the best option). In the explore phase you identify stakeholders, analyse existing designs and research needs and wants, then converge to define the problem: the first convergence point produces a design problem or brief.

In the develop phase you devise many ideas, then evaluate, refine and select: the second convergence point delivers a design proposal. You communicate with stakeholders at each convergence point.

Other models express similar thinking in different language. IDEO's Design Thinking for Educators moves through discovery, interpretation, ideation, experimentation and evolution. IDEO's Field Guide to Human-Centered Design groups methods into inspiration, ideation and implementation. The Stanford d.school identifies five modes of design thinking: empathise, define, ideate, prototype and test.

Design Minds (Duell et al. 2014), developed by the State Library of Queensland for schools, uses three phases supported by structured reflection: inquire (research and identify or define a problem), ideate (brainstorm and generate ideas) and implement (test and prototype ideas and communicate an end result). When you compare models, look for where each one defines the problem, how it alternates divergent and convergent thinking, and how it involves stakeholders.

The Double Diamond makes the defined problem an explicit output; the d.school presents its five modes as components you can start from wherever you like rather than a fixed sequence; the Field Guide ends by bringing a solution to life and eventually to market; Design Minds treats its phases as fluid and non-linear.

Throughout the process, keep a visual and written record: dated sketches, interview notes, photographs of prototypes and annotated evaluations. The record lets others follow your decisions, and it supports your intellectual property rights because it is evidence of when and how you created an idea.