A 'SOCIAL MODEL' OF DESIGN: ISSUES OF PRACTICE AND RESEARCH
Introduction
When most people think of product design, they envision products for the market, generated by a manufacturer and directed to a consumer. Since the Industrial Revolution, the dominant design paradigm has been one of design for the market and alternatives have received little attention. In 1972, Victor Papanek, an industrial designer and at the time Dean of Design at the California Institute of the Arts, published his polemical book Design for the Real World in which he made the famous declaration that "[t]here are professions more harmful than industrial design, but only a very few of them."
The book, initially
published in Swedish two years earlier, quickly gained worldwide
popularity with its call for a new social agenda for designers. Since
Design for the Real World appeared, others have responded to Papanek's
call and sought to develop programs of design for social need ranging
from the needs of developing countries to the special needs of the
aged, the poor, and the disabled.
These
efforts have provided evidence that an alternative to product design
for the market is possible but they have not led to a new model of
social practice. Compared to the "market model," there has been little
theorizing about a model of product design for social need. Theory
about design for the market is extremely well developed. It cuts across
many fields from design methods to management studies and the semiotics
of marketing. The rich and vast literature of market design has
contributed to its continued success and its ability to adapt to new
technologies, political and social circumstances, and organizational
structures and processes.
Conversely, little
thought has been given to the structures, methods, and objectives of
social design. Concerning design for development, some ideas have been
borrowed from the intermediate or alternative technology movement,
which has promoted low-cost technological solutions for problems in
developing countries, but regarding the broader understanding of how
design for social need might be commissioned, supported, and
implemented. However little has been accomplished. Nor has attention
been given to changes in the education of product designers that might
prepare them to design for populations in need rather than for the
market alone.
The field of environmental
psychology has attempted to respond to the environmental needs of the
vulnerable. Those working in this field use an interdisciplinary
approach to research and implement solutions that create better living
spaces for such populations as the mentally ill, the homeless, and the
aged. Architects, psychologists, social workers, occupational
therapists, and others have worked together to explore the intersection
of people's psychological needs and the landscapes, communities,
neighborhoods, housing, and interior space that increase feelings of
pleasantness, arousal, excitement, relaxation and decrease feelings of
fear and stress. There has not been a similar effort in the field of
product design.
A "social model" of design practice
In
this paper, we want to begin a new discussion of design for social need
by proposing a "social model" of product design practice and suggesting
a research agenda that would examine and develop it in the same way
that comparable research has supported design for the market and
environmental psychology. Although many design activities can be
considered as socially responsible design - sustainable product design,
affordable housing, and the redesign of government tax and immigration
forms, for example - we will limit this paper to a discussion of
product design within a process of social service intervention.
Although
we base our discussion on the intervention model used by social
workers, a similar model could also be applied to collaborations with
health care professionals in hospitals and other health care settings
as well as to joint projects with teachers and educational
administrators in school settings. The model could work as well with
teams of experts engaged in projects in developing countries.
The
primary purpose of design for the market is creating products for sale.
Conversely, the foremost intent of social design is the satisfaction of
human need. However, we don't propose the "market model" and the
"social model" as binary opposites but instead view them as two poles
of a continuum. The difference is defined by the priorities of the
commission rather than by a method of production or distribution. Many
products designed for the market also meet a social need but we argue
that the market does not and probably cannot take care of all social
needs, as some relate to populations who do not constitute a class of
consumers in the market sense. We refer here to people with low-incomes
or special needs due to age, health, or disability.
To
develop a "social model" we will draw on the literature of social work,
a practice whose principal objective is to meet the needs of
underserved or marginalized populations. Central to social work theory
is the ecological perspective. Social workers assess the transaction
that occurs between their client system (a person, family, group,
organization, or community) and the domains within the environment with
which the client system interacts. Various domains that impact human
functioning are the biological, psychological, cultural, social,
natural, and physical/spatial.
The
physical/spatial domain, which concerns us in this paper, is comprised
of all things created by humans such as objects, buildings, streets,
and transportation systems. Inadequate or inferior physical
surroundings and products can affect the safety, social opportunity,
stress level, sense of belonging, self-esteem, or even physical health
of a person or persons in a community. A poor fit with one or more key
domains may be at the root of the client system's problem, thus
creating a human need.
For example, a group
of children is acting out in a pre-school. An initial diagnosis blames
their parents for having poor child-rearing skills. A social worker is
asked to organize the parents in a group to teach them better
child-rearing practices. The assumption here is that the parents will
apply these skills and their children's behavior will improve. When the
group meets, the social worker learns that the parents are under
tremendous stress due to multiple problems: lack of money because of
the inability to find a job; low wages in available jobs; scarce
transportation to get to work in distant places; unsafe surroundings;
broken playground equipment on a cement lot; and inadequate and unsafe
elevators in their apartment buildings. It is clear that the issues
with which the parents are dealing go beyond poor child-rearing skills,
thus requiring that other factors, including those in the
physical/spatial domain, must be addressed.
Social
workers tend to follow a model of generalist practice, a six-step
problem-solving process that includes engagement, assessment, planning,
implementation, evaluation, and termination. The entire process is
conducted in a collaborative manner with the client system. Other human
service professionals may be brought in as part of the intervention. In
the engagement phase, the social worker listens to the client system
and gets a sense of the presenting problem. In the next phase,
assessment, the social worker looks holistically at the client system's
interaction within the various environmental domains. The aim of an
assessment is not to take a problem at face value but to look more
deeply and more broadly at the client system in the total environment
to get at the roots of the problem.
The
outcome of the assessment phase is a list of different needs to be
addressed. In the third phase, planning, the social worker collaborates
with the client system to prioritize the needs, trying to determine
what is most pressing. Then the social worker and the client system
brainstorm in order to devise different solutions. They talk about
various ideas and collaboratively decide what will work best. Together
the client system and the social worker make a list of goals and
objectives and decide who will do what by when. In the implementation
phase, the intervention is guided by the goals and objectives that have
already been agreed upon.
In settings such as
hospitals or schools, social workers are members of teams that include
other professionals. Among these might be psychologists, speech
therapists, occupational therapists, or probation officers. The team
works collaboratively to assess a problem, and different team members
intervene as needed. The ways in which product designers could
participate in a team process with human service professionals are yet
to be explored, particularly the designer's involvement in the
physical/spatial domain.
Lawton describes a research
project for the elderly that sought to learn about the deficiencies in
the home environment and the way people cope with them. A social
worker, an architect, a psychologist, and an occupational therapist
visited the homes of fifty highly impaired older people who were
managing to live alone. One of the team's findings was that many of the
people they observed had set up "control centers" in an area of their
living room that allowed them to view the front door and, through a
window, the street.
The nearby placement of a
telephone, radio, and television also enabled them to have social
contact with the outside world. Additionally, on a table within reach
were medicine, food, reading material, and other items of use. If a
product designer had been on this intervention team, he or she would no
doubt have been stimulated to create products that could serve the low
mobility needs of this older population.
To
advance the discussion of how the product designer might collaborate
with an intervention team, we would like to suggest several options.
During the assessment phase, the designer, either as a member of an
intervention team or as a consultant, might be able to identify factors
that contribute to a problem. In the planning phase, a designer could
develop intervention strategies related to the physical environment.
During implementation, the designer could create a needed product or
work with the client system to design one.
These
strategies differ from Papanek's proposals for social action in Design
for the Real World. Papanek pits socially responsible designers against
a commercial market that thrives on the production of excessive and
useless products. By harshly criticizing the market economy, he limits
the options for a social designer. Papanek argues that socially
responsible designers must organize their own interventions outside the
mainstream market, yet he gives little guidance as to how this might be
done.
We believe that many professionals share the
goals of designers who want to do socially responsible work, and
therefore we propose that both designers and helping professionals find
ways to work together. In short, we believe that designers will find
many more allies in professions related to health, education, social
work, aging, and crime prevention than are evident in Papanek's
analysis.
Nonetheless, Papanek's book is
extremely helpful in describing the kinds of social products designers
might create. Using as a framework a socially-oriented design office,
Papanek provides long lists of products that address social needs.
Among these are teaching aids of all kinds including aids to transfer
knowledge and skills to those with learning difficulties and physical
abilities; training aids for poor people who are trying to move into
the work force; medical diagnostic devices, hospital equipment and
dental tools; equipment and furnishings for mental hospitals; safety
devices for home and work; and devices that address pollution problems.
Some of these products, particularly medical and hospital equipment,
are already produced for the market, but there are certainly many that
are not manufactured because a market cannot be identified for them.
An agenda for social design
Design
is most often understood by the public as an artistic practice that
produces dazzling lamps, furniture, and automobiles. This is how it is
generally presented by the media and the museums. One reason why there
is not more support for social design services is the lack of research
to demonstrate what a designer can contribute to human welfare.
A
broad research agenda for social design must begin by addressing a
number of questions. What role can a designer play in a collaborative
process of social intervention? What is currently being done in this
regard and what might be done? How might the public's perception of
designers be changed in order to present an image of a socially
responsible designer? How can agencies that fund social welfare
projects and research gain a stronger perception of design as a
socially responsible activity? What kinds of products meet the needs of
vulnerable populations?
A multi-faceted
approach can be taken to explore these and other questions. Survey
research and interviews with human service professionals, designers,
and agency administrators can be conducted to gather information on
perceptions and attitudes and to solicit suggestions for change.
Content analysis of archival data such as journals, periodicals, and
newspapers can be used to gain insight into how the media report on
issues of social design.
Another research
method is participant observation. This entails designers entering
social settings either as part of a multidisciplinary team or alone to
observe and document social needs that can be satisfied with design
interventions. For example, this was done in the research project
conducted by Lawton that we described earlier, except that an architect
rather than a product designer was on the investigative team.
Research
that centers on the development and evaluation of socially responsible
products is also important. To create new products, designers have to
conduct research on how to translate their ideas into finished designs.
As well, they are obligated to evaluate these products in actual
situations to test their effectiveness. A good example of
socially-oriented product design research is MIT's AgeLab, where Joseph
Coughlin, a professor of engineering, and a team of colleagues and
graduate students are testing and analyzing new technologies to improve
life for the elderly.
Although some of the
research involves technology that can help the elderly drive more
safely and possibly at an older age, much of the investigation relates
to the home where such products as an in-home health center and a
transit system that would allow people to schedule rides are being
considered. Finally, the social design field should have a compendium
of case studies such as AgeLab that document examples of relevant
practice.
The combined research methods we
have outlined are intended to explore questions that range from the
broad social context within which designers work to the specifics of
developing a product for a particular client system. The scope of
research for social design includes public and agency perceptions of
designers, the economics of social interventions, the value of design
in improving the lives of underserved populations, a taxonomy of new
product typologies, the economics of manufacturing socially responsible
products, and the way that such products and services are received by
populations in need. Until now, the social interventions of designers
have been hit or miss with few successes to point the way towards
social support for more of the same.
The education of social designers
Design
skills cut across all situations but skills in relating to vulnerable
or marginalized populations rather than to a brief from a manufacturer
need to be developed by future social designers. Students of social
design will have to learn more about social needs and how they are
currently addressed by helping professionals. They might do an
internship with a clinical team in a psychiatric hospital, a community
agency, or residential facility for the elderly. They would also
require a stronger background in sociology, psychology, and public
policy. As far as we are aware, no university programs specifically
train social designers. We can, however, cite as a good beginning the
one year certificate program of Archeworks, a private educational
institution in Chicago, founded in 1994 by Stanley Tigerman and Eva L.
Maddox, that is dedicated to advancing a socially responsible design
agenda.
Each year Archeworks introduces a
small interdisciplinary group of students from varied intellectual
backgrounds to a process of social design that has resulted in a number
of projects and studies including a device for people with Alzheimer's
Disease to facilitate their getting into an automobile, a head-pointer
designed for people with cerebral palsy, and a new model office
environment for the Illinois Department of Human Services. In most
cases, projects have been conducted in collaboration with social
service organizations or agencies and many have been funded by grants
from public and private sources.
Conclusion
Our
purpose has been to describe a new "social model" of design practice
and to suggest a research agenda through which important questions
related to the emergence of such a practice can be addressed. A "social
model" of design practice is needed more than ever, and we are hopeful
that concerned designers, design researchers, helping professionals,
and design educators will find ways to bring it about.
About Victor Margolin
Victor Margolin is Professor of Design History at the University of Illinois, Chicago.
About Sylvia Margolin
Sylvia Margolin is University Professor of Social Work at Governor's State University in Chicago.
About Archeworks
Archeworks' mission is to address social needs by developing and
providing alternative design education solutions through a
multi-disciplinary process.