Can You Be 10 X The Designer

How can you as a designer do your job and still sleep at night?

Are designers going to have to be justifying themselves forever in the face of the relentless criticism that they design things in such a way that consumers are powerless to resist the entrancing properties of these ‘magical’ like designs?

Or will consumers one day face up to the fact that ‘their focus on consumption is a form of psychological junk food that in the long term makes them unhealthy’ (Professor Costanca, Department of Ecological Economics, University of Vermont) and let designers get on with the necessary job that they have to do.

The critics need to face facts. If tomorrow consumers were to stop consuming for want and were to start consuming for need only, the world’s population would still need a vast and increasing quantity of goods and services.

About half the world’s population lives on about two dollars a day or less. This doesn’t satisfy their most basic of needs. The world’s economic activity is forecast to have to grow by a factor of four over the next 40-50 years simply to move most of the people in the world to a reasonable standard of living.

The population is increasing and is forecast to grow by 50% over the next 40-50 years. Every baby born is, by necessity, another consumer.

Products wear out and break down. New products are designed not just to tempt consumers but because they legitimately do a job more effectively or efficiently.

The world will need more products and it will need new products.

At the same time designers need to face up to reality. The human race has taken over 75% of the Earth’s surface for it’s selfish demands. This is a planet that has to be shared with nature on an equal basis at the very least just to allow the planet’s ecosystems a fighting chance of survival.

In summary the world’s economy has to supply an additional three times more goods to one and half times more people using a third less resources than it does today. Put simply designers need to start designing about ten times better than they do today.

It seems like an impossible task. However, if it is broken down into steps, great improvements may be possible. Take a hypothetical product and start this redesign and reengineering process. (Tefal improved energy efficiency by 68%  with this new kettle design. It may not be attractive but it is effective.)

Source more of the raw materials from environmentally friendly resources (reducing impact by half say) giving an improvement of multiple 2.

Innovatively redesign the product so it does the same or a better job with half the materials and /or processes (giving an improvement of multiple 2).

Make the product run twice as efficiently by installing the best technology available and avoiding wasteful extras (like stand by switches). Tick the multiple 2 box again.

Engineer the product for long-term durability and repairability using the latest engineering analysis techniques doubling the products life span (*2).

Ensure that the product is recyclable so it can be used again (*2).

The hypothetical product is now 32 (2*2*2*2*2) times better designed than when the redesign/reengineering process began.

In fact being a ‘ten times’ better designer can be achieved with as little as roughly 50% improvements at each stage of the design and engineering process. This process of cumulative improvements will ensure that design has a valuable role in a sustainable society and may help make the planet a better place for future generations. 

References.

Geographic, demographic and economic stats are from

Planet Earth - The Future BBC 4  26/11/06 - 10/12/06

Image www.tefal.co.uk