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George Aye: 3 Principios del diseño social

Gracias a Beatriz Belmonte (@mybeatrix) llego a una interesante lectura que nos sirve para reflexionar, y en mi caso, ampliar horizontes sobre los diferentes ámbitos en los que el diseño influye. El artículo es It’s Time to Define What “Good” Means in Our Industry. A continuación una cita que sirve de anticipo sobre su contenido:

When it comes to design work in the social sector, we often hear debates over terms, categories, and taxonomies: Should we call it social design? What about design for social innovation? Or how about the nebulous borders around terms like participatory design, collective impact, and co-design? It’s enough to make one’s head spin. But while these debates are raging on, we’re missing the answer to a much, much more important question. We’re missing a shared definition for what good looks like.

It’s Time to Define What “Good” Means in Our Industry — George Aye

Comienza hablando de su experiencia como jurado en concursos de diseño, de los principios del buen diseño en el ámbito más convencional, el comercial (luego recordamos los famosos diez principios de Dieter Rams), pero obviamente es diferente del contexto social.

Recordemos, como anticipábamos, los influyentes diez principios del buen diseño:

  • Good design is innovative
  • Good design makes a product useful
  • Good design is aesthetic
  • Good design makes a product understandable
  • Good design is unobtrusive
  • Good design is honest
  • Good design is long-lasting
  • Good design is thorough down to the last detail
  • Good design is environmentally friendly
  • Good design is as little design as possible

Ten principles for good designDieter Rams

La transcendencia y el impacto que han tenido estos principios en el mundo del diseño, creo que es difícil de valorar. Su solidez, facilidad de comprensión (quizás no tanto para su aplicación práctica), su redacción, su número,… todo influye para que se esté o no de acuerdo en todos los principios, al menos entren en consideración.

¿Qué principios equivalentes podrían ser considerados en el ámbito social? ¿Qué influencia podría tener? De nuevo, una breve cita que considero clave:

It can shape how teachers and students plan their curriculum and projects respectively. It can prompt social sector leaders to ask more critical question of their design partners and perhaps most importantly, give the whole sector rhetorical tools to rein in funders and their disproportionate influence on the field.

It’s Time to Define What “Good” Means in Our Industry — George Aye

Y ahora, los principios:

Three principles of good design in the social sector.

  • Good design honors reality
  • Good design creates ownership
  • Good design builds power

It’s Time to Define What “Good” Means in Our Industry — George Aye

Principles of good design in the social sector: Good design honors reality; Good design creates ownership; Good design builds power. George Aye
Principles of good design in the social sector by George Aye

Para saber si estamos alineados con los principios, George Ayep plantea algunas preguntas:

Good design honors reality

  • How well has this project/team sought to understand the cultural, political and historical context that led to today’s reality?
  • Does this project/team run the risk of capitalizing on the deficits of a community’s reality, in order to promote their work?
  • How well has this project/team sought to find the innate assets and creativity already present in this context and tried to share it?

Good design creates ownership

  • What steps have we taken to prevent new dependencies from being created in this community?
  • How has this project/team sought out the pre-existing capacity in this community and built upon it?
  • How has this project/team made space for those it serves, giving them room to adapt and interpret the design process and shape outcomes?
  • Good design builds power
    How has this project/team acknowledged the role that concentrated pockets of power (including the role of the funder) have played in the history of this issue?
  • What steps have this project/team taken to address the power asymmetry that occurs when the design team shows up?
  • How do the tools/processes/strategies created from this project give this community access to power that was previously out of reach?

It’s Time to Define What “Good” Means in Our Industry — George Aye

PS: Dos artículos relacionados: Design for Good publicado en AIGA, y también Los 10 principios del Diseño Centrado en la Vida.