Design needs to make more than a difference

First published by Design Authority, March 2014

James responds authoritatively to a number of questions posed to him by Design Authority on the significance of design. His approach to design is reflected within his academic and career history; educated as a physicist and working in a number of different fields including publishing, industry, technology, design and innovation.

Over the course of the interview James discusses what has inspired his own development and the difference he has learned between merely making a difference compared to being genuinely revolutionary. If designers want to be truly inspirational, he suggests certain things designers should avoid or stop doing and advocates a number of others that they should be adopting or doing. A balance sheet emerges:

Avoid or stop

• Moralising
• Trying to change behaviour to reduce and control consumption
• Making products that reflect capriciousness and narcissism
• Advocate use of low level technology where better products exist
• Being blinkered to the reality of the lives of many where poverty prevails and even the most basic of human needs, such as sanitation, are not being met.

 Aspire to and do

• Display real leadership by pushing boundaries and aim to be revolutionary
• Be ambitious and set bigger and better agendas
• Aim for products that are beautiful, intelligible and cheap
• Create products that have a strong relationship to science and technology
• Get your ideas across in many ways – work, writing, speaking… and bring on board new generations
• Explain through example
• Make visible and mobilise the design work many people automatically undertake in their day to day at work in order to improve things
• Research within but also beyond your field, taking a multi-disciplinary view across social, political, economic scientific areas
• Build compelling arguments that are founded in good research that appeal to the heart and romance of innovation and to the sound economics of the costs / benefits
• Experiment with new forms of visualisation that turn long reports in to simple, engaging and stimulating presentations

In conclusion, James comments that designers should take inspiration from ground breaking areas within science and technology, for it is here that the future is being shaped – and designers should ensure that they are an integral part of this.