I am researching the effects of design on designers, the people that the designers target, and the effects of how design changes and influences.
I am researching the effects of design on designers, the people that the designers target, and the effects of how design changes and influences.
What is Design?
Design is the technical and creative scheme for something that is to be created. People try to design things all the time, whether it is something as simple as a written outline, or schematics to a vehicle. The schematics would show the design of what the car should look like and how to optimize its performance. That would be a technical use of design. The creative use of design can just be an artistic representation of a topic an artist is perusing. It can be abstract or a have more of a meaning to it. Designs are sketches that are then turned into something that people can use.
Designs can be very strange things to deal with. When working on a design, it may become apparent that the thing we are trying to create isn't going to be what we envisioned at first. The original concept may change over time and it can be dangerous to try to turn the creation back into what we envisioned. What if the intended creation was not meant to be what we wanted it to be at first? A blank piece of paper is useful because it can be anything we want it to be. But as the designer sketches out the schematics, it can change over time, and it becomes harder to erase with each mistake. These mistakes tend to take a form of their own and then transform into something that can be radically beautiful, depending on how much the design artist fought back against the creation in his or her attempt to devolve it back into it's original intended form.
From here on the design can be thrown away and then used for other purposes. It is not entirely useless as the artist can learn from the mistakes or successes of the sketch. It is always a good idea to keep these things for the reason that they always manage to give you an idea as for what to do for another sketch. They can be taken apart and used to improve another production, or used as reference. If an artist, however, can communicate with the design and the product that this newly formed design is being created towards, then the design can be salvaged. If it's not forced to be something it's not, then it will work more fluidly and be easier to present to the public.
Design impacts everybody. It gives us ideas and it gives us a general knowledge of how something works. The design of advertisements shows us who we are trying to influence. The target audience, as it is called in communication classes and other forms of those classes. Although the designer is not trying to influence anyone other than the target audience, the design still impacts those who are not targeted. It affects them in the way that they know to avoid that type of advertising contact. They shy away from those things and embrace the things that they are accustomed to. Everyone is part of a target audience. All age groups and basically anybody that has an interest in anything. You would have to be the most uninteresting person in the world to effectively avoid the media and it's attempts to globalize the world.
The globalization of media has a huge impact on design as well. It brings us together so we can understand, or if the design chooses, so we can become indifferent to the people we are being exposed to. Design can be used to create tensions or hate between specific groups of people. Propaganda is the proper term for these types of actions. Although it is a darker form of design, propaganda is usually shown as being patriotic in some way. Nearly all, if not all, propaganda is based on improving the display of one chosen group, and then derailing the other group that is opposing the first group. Using propaganda is normally created to be subtle. People should be educated to be able to identify propaganda when it shows itself. Propaganda cannot be used for a helpful purpose as it only shows a one-sided approach of things.
Design has impacted our past and it shows by our present. The things we have today wouldn't be around without the failed and successful designs of the past. Most designs today are stumbled upon by accident. The original creators strayed from the path of origin and created something new and innovative. Innovation isn't always something that is planned. Design will impact our future as well. It all depends on what humans use their designs for, which will determine how our future will unfold before us.
A good example of an unintended design used for awful purposes would be the atomic bomb. When scientists were originally creating it, they did not know that it could be destructive. The atomic bomb was originally created to be a nuclear reactor, for a powerful source of energy that humans could harness and power the world with. When a reactor exploded one day, the government thought they could use this interesting new development and turn it into a weapon of war (which, devastatingly enough, they did). The scientists turned their projects around and unknowingly created a weapon of mass destruction.
The purpose of design is not all the same. Generally designs are created so that people can have an easier time of doing something, or a better way to access something. For instance, the modern day printer is always undergoing new designs so that we can print our papers with less jamming, smearing, or other forms of malfunctions. But, besides the fact that humans mostly want to improve the quality of life for themselves, design is used recreationally. People make new games or challenges based on past designs that are used as examples to further enhance new existing recreational activities.
The recipients of our designs do not normally use the design as intended. That is why user experience and user interactionists survey their product recipients. It is very common for someone to find a way to use a design in a different form, completely unrelated to the original intended use. Designers should be on the lookout for people that have these properties as they give great advice as to how the product could potentially be used. In case the designer was fighting the design and tried to focus too much on the original product, rather than what it could be, they can take the advice of the people who use it unconventionally and transform it into what the other people see it as.
These unconventional transformations can be either beneficial or disadvantageous to our objectives when we design things, but I say that it is best to let these unconventionalities occur and to see where they lead us and to know when to cut something or to let it keep happening.
Humankind's thirst for communication and information is seemingly unquenchable, and technology is playing an increasing role. The speed by which these new technologies are advancing should cause many of us to pause and ponder some fundamental questions about new communications technology. The means with which we communicate and the policies that guide their use may not be as neutral or as beneficent as we think. Besides allowing us to share our thoughts, our media systems may be shaping them. (Nayyak, 2009)
I understand this quote by Nayyak to be applicable to my thoughts on design as an effect on our lack of education of design. People want changes to occur, they enjoy new things and changes to social media but sometimes we as people forget to analyze these new things and see for what they really are. Most people don't stop to think about how a certain design will impact our society or how we do things. Not all people accept change and we shouldn't exile older designs just because most people enjoy change. Some target audiences do not enjoy change and we need to attempt to appeal to them without causing a semblance of confusion. Older audiences more than likely would be the ones that do not accept change as fluidly as our younger audiences do.
In conclusion, I believe that people are susceptible to the designs of our societies and we need to be educated in how they work and what they are intended for, while at the same time accepting what they weren't intended for but are being used for anyways. As the audience needs to be knowledgeable about how design is used, the creator of the design should be aware of how the design is being used and how this design can be used to his or her advantage, without causing any unintended harm to the people using it or people it is used upon because of the lack of knowledge in the subject.