The document summarizes observations from a workshop where design students and faculty were asked to visualize the past, present, and future of design through timelines and diagrams. Three key themes emerged: 1) Both students and faculty see collaboration and interdisciplinary work as important parts of the future of design. 2) Students were more optimistic about technology's role in the future compared to some faculty who saw it as more unknown. 3) Environmental sustainability was a common element included across timelines for both groups.
1. Grad Student MakeTool Analysis
20 April 2010
Beth Benzenberg
Ale Mattos
Bruno Ribeiro
2. Group 1
A lot of the things we are doing in Technology is necessary in the
the present are good, but they need future, but not if it takes over the
to transform in order to fit into the world. Also, taking influence from
future. For example, user centered the global community is good, but
design transforms into co-creation it should not get to be too much to
and reuse of materials transforms where everything becomes alike.
into using less materials.
3. Group 2
The past shows not a lot of autonomy There is a fear of not keeping up
for designers, while the future has with technology.
a designer with ideas coming from
The walls between practice and
many different places and many
education will be broken down.
ideas flowing out as well.
4. Group 3
The past is expert-led design
and the future is all about
collaboration.
Connectivity, interdisciplinary
research, co-creation are all in
the future.
5. Group 4
Practice and education need
to influence each other more.
Practice needs to take the
theory from education and
education needs to take some
of the constraints from practice
in order to give a well-rounded
experience.
Co-design and flexibility will be
in the future, giving a voice to
the people.
Technology is really important
to the future.
6. Group 5
Fear that everything is branded Globalization allows more
in the future. consumerism… this can be
a bad thing.
Celebrity designers existed in the
past and more teamwork will exist
in the future.
7. Past
apprenticeship • Bauhaus • graphic design • sketching • drawing
• form follows function • hand skills • advertising • aesthetically driven
• art • design • design star • function over formrevolution • • individual • industrial
lone‑figure • masculine • mass production • need • object • predicting • printing press • products
• styling • superior and sometimes arrogant • exclusive •
expert‑driven •
propaganda • branding • complexity • consumption • desktop publishing •
Present
architecture • art • epistemology • functionality • graphic design • interior space design • industrial design •
specialization • user driven design • verb • visual communication • reusing materials • big picture
• classroom • democratic • design research • discovery • environmentally conscious • exploration • global •
individual • instant • interdisciplinary • marketing • mass production • need • problem solving • service oriented •
sustainability • technical skills • expert‑driven • noun • superficial • superior and sometimes arrogant • uncertainty
8. Future
art and design • Bauhaus • emotional • universal design • usability • interdisciplinary
• environmentally conscious • ethnography •
sketching • social
change • • • socially responsible team‑player transformation design
• experience design • culturally responsive • global • design •
form follows function • instant • integrative design thinking • interaction design • service design •
process • co‑design • collaboration
thinking • design
• interactive • meaningful • mobile • multi‑disciplinary •
participatory design • flexibility • simplicity • respect • big picture
• adaptability • co‑creation • customization • design research • discovery‑led research
• exploration • generative design • human centered • immaterialism • inclusive • need • networking •
problem solving • reflection • reusing materials • risk • ubiquitous • verb • virtual • visionary • branding •
wasteful • superficial • uncertainty
15. Notes
They are all time lines. Technology is a big part of design in the future.
Robots and technology in the future but we
Three teams divided into bad and good,
don’t want them to do our jobs for us.
fear and dreams.
Environmental: 4 teams
Just one group made clear the distinction
(Three teams used the same “nature” image)
about good and bad.
Social change: 3 teams
Just one group made a clear distinction
of the future. Disciplines for the future: service, universal,
experience
Only one group used the words dreams
andfears. Four teams used Google.
4 teams show the “pencils” are not only
in the past, present and future.
All teams believe that collaboration/
inter-disciplinary belongs in the future.
16. Observations about faculty + design students
They seem more fearful or unsure Connectivity showed up a lot in the
of the future than the grad students. faculty, but not in the grad students’.
Maybe it’s because we feel like we’re
Both have a lot about collaboration
already connected and maybe the next
in the future.
step is trans-disciplinary work.
Both include a bit about being
When the path image was used, the sticker
environmentally conscious.
“environmentally conscious” was immediately
When asked to do past, present, future, we all next to it.
included a time line layout but when asked to
Most have hand skills (pencils) that should be
do only one, they were mostly circular.
included in the future, so we all acknowledge
Collaboration, connectivity and that basics shouldn’t be forgotten, no matter
environmentalism are all really good, but how technology advances.
when technology is introduced, it became
Both used inter- or multi-disciplinary
more of an unknown (in the faculty), but
for the future.
technology in the grad students’ is less of
an unknown. Most hope for design to be more socially
or culturally responsible.
