with design training were extremely
rare and typically had to do their
Ph.D.s in other disciplines.
INTERIM EVENTS (1984–2014)
The shift from seeing people as
consumers and customers to seeing
them as users began with the advent
of PCs that were difficult to use.
Microsoft was a pioneer, with a
team of four people doing usability
engineering in 1988 [ 1]. Usability
testing grew rapidly once PCs and
Macintoshes became available to
everyone who could afford them.
The cognitive needs of the user, in
addition to the previous concern with
ergonomics, became major concerns in
the 1990s.
The ongoing integration of
design research into design practice
moved fastest in industrial design
and user interface design, where it
was practiced according to a user-centered research approach. With the
user-centered approach, designers
still designed for people, but their
perspective on people enlarged
from seeing them as customers and
consumers to seeing them as users of
products and interfaces.
In the user-centered design
process, we focused on the thing
being designed (e.g., the object,
communication, space, interface, etc.),
looking for ways to ensure that it met
the needs of the user. In user-centered
design, the roles of the researcher
and the designer were distinct yet
interdependent. The user was not
really a part of the team, but was
spoken for by the researcher.
An ongoing battle was being played
out in the early 1990s between the
user-centered design researchers
and the market researchers. User
researchers focused on helping
the design team to make products,
communication, and spaces that were
useful, usable, and desirable. Market
researchers focused on the delivery
and sales end of the process. Their
goals were complementary, but the
different groups were often competing
for the limited funds available for
research.
Over time, design research
activities slowly moved to the front
end of the design development
process, where designers and design
researchers were getting involved with
challenges at larger and larger levels
of scale. The challenges ranged from
automating ticket sales to enhancing
the experiences of passengers waiting
at airports to the orchestration of
collaboration in healthcare services to
attacking societal issues like obesity.
The means—originally the object
of design—became the second step
in the designers’ work. Interest in
design research grew as the challenges
became more and more demanding,
particularly at the front end of the
process. Soon designers and design
researchers were being called upon
to get involved in exploring what to
design, not only how to design it.
Many new methods and tools for
design research were developed,
particularly from 1999 on. A number
of books that organize and describe
large collections of design and design
research methods and tools began
appearing.
2014: A SLICE IN TIME
We won’t start this slice with a list of
historical events, because we all live it
today, but let’s just do a comparison:
• Smartphones, social media, and
other forms of connectivity have
spread through our lives.
• Digital means, increasingly “the
cloud,” have almost eradicated regular
mail for the purposes of transferring
information.
• Global problems of demographics,
• New technologies no longer
originate only in the Western world;
Asian countries and companies have
integrated as active players in the
innovation-sphere.
Not only have our methods of
working changed, but the mindset in
2014 has also shifted toward that of
designing with people. We see this for
both the long-term challenges that
address societal issues and the short-term challenges of the marketplace.
Design and design research are now
more integrated, especially in the
newer domains of practice such as
systems, service, and social design.
How do we work today? We live
in two worlds: One is real and the
other virtual. These worlds are tightly
coupled for many people. Small, fast,
and mobile devices keep us connected
to each other in real time. The
Internet is available to anyone with
a wireless device. Many people sleep
next to their smartphones, and young
people have altogether abandoned
landline phones and wristwatches.
Children as young as three or four can
use the new devices without much
explanation.
We work in teams both real and
virtual, and we can collaborate
anytime and anywhere through our
connected devices. We have many
different ways of communicating with
the others on our teams, including
face-to-face meetings, emailing, Skype
and other video chat services, Twitter,
Facebook, the phone (including
conference calls), and so on. We can
collaborate in real time at different
locations using shared documents. We
are able to participate in just about
anything that catches our attention
at levels of scale not previously
imaginable, thanks in part to the
prevalence of social networks. At the
same time, enthusiastic and uncritical
application of new technology over
the past 30 years is now recognized as
having created new problems and left
others unsolved. But we continue to let
new technology push innovation and
drive design.
Innovation no longer comes from
just market pull (what people ask for)
or technology push (what is invented),
but also from a contextual push [ 2],
The means—originally the object
of design—became the second step
in the designers’ work. Soon designers
and design researchers were being
called upon to get involved in exploring
what to design, not only how to design it.
COVER STORY