Reflecting on Design for Social Need

This paper deals with themes related to designing for social need. Defining ‘need’ requires knowledge, however, as Friedman observes: ‘it is not experience, but our interpretation and understanding of experience that leads to knowledge’.

The paper addresses firstly, how do we interpret and understand experience, and secondly, how do we select the experiences on which we construct the knowledge used to define need? It proposes a research method based on developing a reflective practice that might enhance the quality of decision making, by raising awareness of the experience of knowledge acquisition as it changes perceptions within the design process; the aim being to make explicit the multitude of influencing factors involved.

The proposed research method arises from research I previously undertook into Designing for an Ageing Population, which argued for a move from a medical model in design to one which acknowledged the social model whilst emphasising the importance of emotional design through the visual appearance of product forms.

The paper was presented in the biennial series of conferences held by the European Academy of Design which instituted an innovative expert review process.