I happened upon this interview with Hugh Dubberly, by Steven Heller. A link to download the whole PDF is below, and I’ve quoted two bits I think are particularly relevant to designers.

Design has moved from a focus on form and meaning to a focus on action and interaction. Increasingly, designers are faced with the need to design integrated systems. Systems of systems. Connected sets of products and services. These systems form ecologies that grow and evolve. Their outcome cannot be pre-determined. Even the full range of use may be difficult to predict.

Dubberly describes his ideal design curriculum for changing design practice below. Sounds like the ideal 21st-century designer is a creative polymath:

What skills should the new media and digital designer learn to
be literate in this field?

The main thing for designers is to be curious—and to learn how to
learn. My ideal curriculum might look something like this.

Design Theory:
- Design Methods
- Research Methods
- Information Structures and Key Models
- Principles of Interaction
- Philosophy and Ethics of Design

Visual Studies:
- Principles of Visual Perception
- Rapid Visualization Drawing
- Typography (editorial and display)
- Content Management Systems (grid systems)
- Way-finding Systems
- Information Design (visualizing information structures)
- Motion Graphics
- Sound Applied to Motion Graphics
- Film Making

Design Practice:
- Information Spaces
- Tools and Applications
- Games and Collaborative Authoring Environments
- Interactive Spaces
- Controls and Haptic Interfaces (physical interfaces)
- Integrated Systems of Products and Services
- Tools for Making Tools
- Systems that Evolve

History:
- of Art
- of Architecture
- of Graphic Design and Product Design
- of the Design Methods Movement
- of Science and Science Fiction
- of Information, Computing, and Interaction

Computer Science:
- Procedural Programming
- Data Structures
- Object-oriented Programming
- Web and Network Applications
- Building Sensors, Displays, and Actuators
- Modeling with Fractals, Genetic Algorithms,
and Cellular Automata

Communications:
- Writing
- Public Speaking
- Rhetoric
- Semiotics
- Epistemology
- Cybernetics (science of feedback)

Related Disciplines:
- Biology (natural systems)
- Cognitive Psychology (learning systems)
- Sociology (social systems)
- Cultural Anthropology and Ethnography
- Marketing
- Economics
- Organizational Management

Download it here. The rest of the interview is very interesting and I highly recommend reading the whole thing.

To return to our normal programme, I read a book, The Education of a Design Entrepreneur, a couple of years ago. I don’t think it was a particularly good book, but it did illuminate in my mind that designers want to do more, they want to mean more, than simply supply flash brochures for dubious products and companies.

Interaction design, user experience design, service design (what?)— the terms seem to be used a little loosely and interchangeably, but it doesn’t matter—I’m no longer going to obsess over the wording*—

These approaches to design, I think, are more entrepreneurial, more exciting, and more potentially meaningful and useful, especially when applied to solving important problems. There are opportunities all over the place (and on a sliding scale of breathtakingness), not just in rural China, but at a local bus stop. Two of the things I’d like to fix are airports and online banking.

—

* Despite the fact that words matter, generally speaking, a bit. I’ve vowed not to write about the terminology problem the industry appears to have, and suggest that you hire only “ninjas” and “rockstars”…

…with my previous post on democracy, and the current turmoil in Iran over the fraudulent election results.

I’m following the #IranElection activity on Twitter, though the posts there are raw, unfiltered, and it’s difficult to tell what is real, and what is not. The colour green (#28C0A6 is the precise hex code) is being used to indicate support for Mousavi.

Fascinating to see the power of the web at work—the BBC is currently receiving five videos per minute!

Something I keep returning to in my thoughts is the significance of travel, and how it changes us. It’s not as simple or easy as visiting somewhere else in the world, and then resuming normal living. If our eyes were open, we have changed. Travel exposes us to new cultures, new ideas. We absorb our environment: it changes us. Understanding how our environment shapes us is fundamental to design practice.

Visiting California in 2003 changed me: it solidified my decision to become a designer. Moving to Brighton in 2007 changed me by exposing me to a vibrant community of smart people doing exciting things. Visiting China in 2009 increased my awareness of my own country.

One thing that we take for granted is our freedom. It’s almost a cliché, but not quite. I was reminded recently how it isn’t yet a cliché; it’s far from a meaningless word, and it’s not something we should take for granted.

—

So when the British National Party secured two seats in the European Parliament as a result of the polls on June 4th, I felt mixed. There is no question that the British National Party is a deceitful party with unacceptable views. There is no question that it’s extremely depressing that so many British people voted for them. But I was sad at how people were dealing with it—after the results were published, Twitter was full of angry, violent, anti-democracy messages.

If the last few months have taught me anything, it’s how lucky we are as a nation to have an open dialogue with our government and politicians. We have press freedom: we make fun of our politicians. We don’t keep them on a pedestal: we keep ‘em firmly in the sty. And we take it for granted.

June 4th 2009 was also the 20th anniversary of massacre in Beijing—the anniversary of a deeply censored, taboo event which occurred in 1989, when the Chinese government murdered an unknown number of students demonstrating in Tiananmen square. Bystanders were also murdered, and even those in their houses, when stray bullets went through the thin walls.

Aiming ultimately for democracy, what the students wanted—initially—was simply a conversation. Talks failed, the government lost patience, and an estimated thousands died. The extent of the coverup and subsequent brainwashing is shocking; twenty years later, the Chinese government is shutting down websites around the event, to minimise conversation.

The Chinese government is going to extreme and ridiculous measures to keep people quiet, and the reality is that most Chinese people are brainwashed: generations will grow up knowing nothing of the event in 1989. I think it is terribly sad that the Chinese government is trusted and blindly loved by the people it deceives.

There is no doubt that learning about China has enhanced my appreciation of our freedom and democracy, and it’s wonderful that people can vote. We choose and elect; we mock and deride; we ultimately have the power.