The required readings from Professional Orientation cover a wide range of topics. This includes career pathways, habits, ethics and goal setting. However, a recurring theme throughout all the readings is the importance of designing with respect to human rights, human effort, and human experience. This reading review will cover three required readings from this unit and their significance in relation to these three aspects. The first is Dieter Rams’ “10 Principles for Good Design”, followed by Balkan and Kalbag’s “Ethical Design Manifesto”, finishing with Michael Bierut’s “Ten Footnotes to a Manifesto”.
Dieter Rams’ “Ten Principles of Good Design” articulates a philosophy emphasizing functionality, simplicity and sustainability in design. Rams states that good design should be innovative, useful and environmentally responsible. This prioritises the user experience while minimizing aesthetic clutter (Shuffle Magazine, n.d). Rams transformed the field of industrial design when he joined Braun in 1955 and the influence of his designs is still seen today (Macdonald, n.d). This demonstrates the power of his philosophy as when he wrote the “Ten Principles of Good Design”, environmental sustainability was not discussed or prioritized in the mainstream like it is today. By combining Rams’ principles when designing products, the outcome is more likely to result in a design that respects human rights, efforts and experience.
Aral Balkan and Laura Kalbag’s “Ethical Design Manifesto” critiques current practices which are common in the design world and advocates for the focus to switch to respecting human’s rights, efforts and experiences (Somos, 2021). Emphasizing the importance of prioritizing human values over profit-driven motives, they encourage designers to consider the broader social implications of their work with the goal of creating designs which genuinely enhance the human experience. A key part of this is having diverse groups of people designing for themselves (Balkan, n.d). In his speech, Balkan describes how having diversity in communities that are solving design problems gives a competitive advantage as it breaks down colonialist ideals and promotes true collaboration. This is particularly important when designing with respect to human rights, efforts and experience.
Michael Beirut’s “Ten Footnotes to a Manifesto” is an insightful rebuttal to the 2000 “First Things First” manifesto. In Beirut’s rebuttal, he breaks down the manifesto and dissects statements to provide a deeper insight into what the authors were trying to say, whilst calling out hypocrisies and ironies. Importantly, Beirut challenges designers to consider their roles within society, advocating for a balance between creativity and responsibility. In his rebuttal, Beirut describes how one of his personal favourite clients is the Brooklyn Academy of music as it is a “fantastic nonprofit organization that courageously supports forward-looking performers” (Beirut, 2007). Conversely, philanthropy in many corporations support it, including a large tobacco company. He questions the ethical dilemma and leaves the reader to ponder for themselves what the ‘right’ thing to do is. This reading encourages thought provoking discussion and gets the reader to think more deeply about social issues and how their chosen field in design can affect change.
In conclusion, all three readings show the importance and necessity of designing with respect to human rights, efforts and experience. This will only become more important in the future as the world deals with the challenges that come with climate change, war and social instability. Even though technology and society has advanced since Rams’ revolutionary principles were put to paper, the same rules apply today when designing for good.
References
Balkan, A. (n.d.). Ethical design manifesto [Video]. Indie. https://ind.ie/ethical-design/
Bierut, M. (2007). Ten footnotes to a manifesto. In 79 short essays on design (pp. 52-60). Princeton Architectural Press.
Macdonald, A. (n.d.). A history of modern design — from Bauhaus to Dieter Rams. Umlaut. https://umlaut.design/blogs/a-history-of-modern-design-from-bauhaus-to-dieter-rams
Shuffle Magazine. (n.d.). Dieter rams: Ten principles for good design. Readymag.com. https://readymag.com/webspecials/dieter-rams/
Somos, A. (2021, February 1). 7 ethical design examples to make Facebook better for everyone. UX Magazine. https://uxmag.com/articles/7-ethical-design-examples-to-make-facebook-better-for-everyone