Reflecting on the Power of a Designer — a DSI conversation.
The Start of the DSI(Design For Social Innovation) Conversation: In terms of social design, I think a designer should focus more on creating choices, and bringing in people from different backgrounds. So the user's product can give maximum joy and satisfaction. Design is supposed to address the needs and wants of the user, and individuals from different backgrounds can give more insight into what would fulfill the user. Minimizing choices limits the choices for consumers and also limits their voice because they only have certain items to chose from and critique. The design has to be holistic, this is especially the case for social design because it is supposed to be utilized by many users, from diverse backgrounds and different demographics. When you think about designing a water-bottle for someone, the design may vary based on the user, (ex. a water-bottle for an extreme sport user vs a water-bottle for a business person) but to understand that user, you need to understand their core needs from different perspectives.
In the case of social innovation, this is even more important because you are solving problems that a large group of people faces and you need to be as creative as possible with resources, ideas, and the creation of the product or service. Users who will be using the said water-bottle will care about how it looks and feels, aesthetic aspects, although there are cases where there are some users who do not care, — a user will at least care about one aspect. By minimizing choices you are giving more power to the designer in coming up with their concept of “an aesthetically pleasing water-bottle” and turning it into a product that the consumer will buy, but in the end, will the consumer be truly satisfied? How do you know that they will not feel uncomfortable with having a bottle that was designed without taking the user’s interests fully into account, and giving them many choices? There is a reason there is a statement that exists like “a bottle for a designer” because the user does not feel like the design represents them and their habits, and this can be seen in other examples too.
In some cases, Zimmerman may have a point but I think it depends on the project, the “targeted user,” and a lot of other variables. There are a lot of cases where people will not care about choices or options because there is a larger issue to focus on and they do not want to be burdened with many options. For example, if a person is waiting for a coffee, and they get asked if they want a compostable cup, plastic cup, or portable cup, most people when given options will most likely choose the least complicated one or say “whatever,” of course this also depends on how much of a rush they are in. In this case, giving a person a compostable cup would be the environmentally right thing, and not giving the person an option. In design this could also be the case: when you consider giving users the option of what type of water-bottle design they want, they may care depending on price and aesthetic, but most people just want a vessel to carry their water.
In conclusion: It would be interesting to see if you would give people the option to choose between bottled water and water in a water-bottle, and see if the user does not care, and the choice is annoying, or if they enjoy the choice. Starbuck is successful because of all the choices they give the customers with the drinks, but a lot of people also think they are too complicated, so I would say it depends on the user group, but in most cases, a more democratic approach is better because it is more human and sensitive to the user. The social designer or any designer should bring more non-designers into their space and work with more democratic approaches because not only does it give more to discuss and consider but I would believe it makes you more open-minded. Also, people are mostly told what to buy and do, why not give more freedom, and see where it leads us, it could very well educate people or have the inverse effect but in the end, you learn a lot more.
