Sociology — 1960–1980

Wicked Problems and the Design Business

Sociology

George Orwell described the ideological battle between capitalism and socialism as a “cold war.” Sociology in its various forms — politics, social systems, communication, and meaning — impacted the practices of design during this period. Politics was ever present in the application of design through laws, policies, as well as public need. Design Methods began as a response to complex problems, and manifested in a realization that Wicked Problems required not only new skills, but new thoughts about who should design and how solutions were applied to communities. Consumerism, and global business growth, continued to perpetuate a blend of marketing and design in the United States resulting in the need for design to become a big business itself. Design offices like Unimark and Pentagram emerged to serve these corporate clients. Viktor Papanek and Ralph Nader brought the conversation about the societal impacts of design — social design — to the foreground. Design went through the same social changes that impacted society at large.

Image above: Ralph Nader (Fia Foundation)

Header image: Unimark International Staff

Assignments for the Class

Readings & Assignments

The readings for the week include the following:

ASSIGNED READING — Primary: A Short, Grandiose Theory of Design, Jay Doblin, 1987 (STA Design Journal)
ASSIGNED READING — Research: The Belmont Report: Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research, The National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, 1979 (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services)
SUPPLEMENTAL READING — Design Education: The India Report, Charles and Ray Eames, 1958 (National Institute of Design, India)

Assignments for the week are as follows:

Product Portfolio

Locate a relevant and impactful product from the period we are discussing (1960-1980). Discuss:

Why does the product exist and what needs were met?
Why is the product important?
Who did the product empower/disempower?
What behaviors did the product change or create?

Method Toolkit

AEIOU (The Design Context):

Identify a context and task that you can observe
Visit the context and observe people interacting to complete the task
Fill in a worksheet with observations which correspond to the AEIOU framework
Identify an insight or two on the context of the experience
Here is a LINK describing the method, but look for some others

The Context

George Orwell coined the term *cold war* as a state of perpetual conflict. It began with the close of WWII. By 1960, the cold war divided the world into spheres of influence. The United States had experienced a decade of rapid economic growth in the 1950s, and suburban growth drove an era of consumerism. Nuclear war and the ability to experience the challenges faced around the world through media brought about a recognition of a new class of problem. *Wicked Problems* were so complex that defining them was impossible. The global standoff between the two spheres of influence persisted until the fall of the Soviet Union between 1988-1991.
Image right: The Kitchen Debate (1959)

Socially Responsible Design

“Advertising design, in persuading people to buy things they don’t need, with money they don’t have, in order to impress others who don’t care, is probably the phoniest field in existence today.”

Viktor Papanek

Health and mortality improvements helped humanity begin to expand at rates beyond our historic rates. The increases in the world population during this period are notable. In addition to the population trends, feeding the world was to become a “wicked problem” on its own.

Source: Our World in Data

Unsafe at Any Speed

In addition to safety, Ralph Nader’s 1965 book *Unsafe at Any Speed* discussed topics including: usability issues, pollution, driver education. The conversation brought the 30,000+ vehicle fatalities that occur each year to the forefront. Automobile styling over the substance of safety was particularly critiqued by Nader. While safety has improved in the United States, it remains an issue in less regulated countries.
“Pressure on car manufacturers is growing. The World Health Organization’s Global Status Report on Road Safety 2015 recommends that all countries should require, at minimum, that all cars sold should meet a set of seven basic UN standards including crashworthiness performance, pedestrian protection and provision of electronic stability control.”
The auto industry avoided features which added cost to vehicles. Those who supported safer products responded, that all automakers would face the same cost increases. Still, adding costs would inhibit the consumer from treating the auto as an easily replaceable purchase. With increased auto traffic, safety was also a concern communities.
Image right: Unsafe at Any Speed book cover

Chart above: US vehicle deaths 1921-2017

Design for the Real World.jpeg — Design for the Real World

Viktor Papanek wrote *Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change* in 1971. Echoing Buckminster Fuller, Papanek believed the design should serve people, and that the world had finite resources, which is shared would meet everybody’s needs. He hoped to address systemic challenges in the design profession including:
The purpose of design
Renewed consideration of indigenous solutions
Ecologically sound design
Papanek was largely condemned by the design community for pointing out these failings of the profession. He felt that designers contributed to three primary activities which had adverse affects on society:
Designing things people do not need, supporting consumerism
Killing people with unsafe products
Depleting resources, adding to waste, and polluting the air.
Source: *Furthering Victor Papanek’s Legacy: A Personal Perspective*, Cees de Bont (She-Ji)
Image left: Design for the Real World cover

“Papanek introduces five myths that exist in the design world (and equally viable alternatives): the myth of mass production (small series are needed to accommodate for diversity), the myth of obsolescence (repairs are viable if products are well designed), the myth of people’s wants (we seldom check our assumptions), the myth that designers lack control (designers should question projects), and the myth that quality no longer counts (companies that make high quality products tend to survive). In spite of his criticism of the work designers are doing, Papanek is kind enough to admit that many consumer products are designed with sensitivity and skill in the category of performance products, such as camping products and cooking utensils.”

Cees de Bont from “Furthering Victor Papanek’s Legacy: A Personal Perspective” (She-Ji)

The Belmont Report

The *Belmont Report: Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research, Report of the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research* was published by the by the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research in 1979. It establishes ethical principles and guidelines for research involving human subjects and was a response to unethical studies including the Tuskegee Syphilis Study (1932–1972). The report identifies three core principles including: respect for persons, beneficence, and justice. The report also describes thee areas of application:
Informed consent
Assessment of risks and benefits
Selection of subjects
The ten page report is required reading fro any student wishing to work in the medical field or in research environments.
Source: Wikipedia
Image right: The Belmont Report

John Lennon and Yoko Ono with a white bike in Amsterdam in 1969 (Bloomberg)

Thoughts to Consider
Consider the regulations and laws that impact designers.

Image left: President Nixon signing the Occupational Safety and Health Act, 1970

Systems Problems

“Synergy is the only word in our language that means behavior of whole systems unpredicted by the separately observed behaviors of any of the system’s separate parts or any subassembly of the system’s parts.”

Buckminster Fuller

Approaches to Systems Problems

Many of our persistent problems are systemic in nature — war, poverty, education, civil rights, etc. Developing “Systems Literacy” and developing approaches to interacting with complex systems is a requirement for designers who intend to impact the world in a positive manner. C. West Churchman, an American systems scientist, believed that many decision-makers lacked the foundations from which to make informed decisions on complex issues. He outlined four to systems problems:
The approach of the *efficiency expert* (reducing time and cost);
The approach of the *scientist*(building models, often with mathematics);
The approach of the *humanist*(looking to our values); and
The approach of the *anti-planner* (accepting systems and living within them, without trying to control them).
**We might also consider a fifth approach:** The approach of the *designer*, which in many respects is also the approach of the policy planner and the business manager, (prototyping and iterating systems or representations of systems).
Hugh Dubberly describes three steps to achieving systems literacy. Firstly, designers must develop a vocabulary of systems topics. Secondly, we need to nurture a capacity to analyze systems and problems. And lastly, designers must ultimately synthesize and describe both existing and imagined systems. Our intention is to raise awareness of these topics and relevant readings so that design students can develop their literacy of the topics.
Image right: Negative feedback loop diagram (DDO)

Diagram: from “A City Is Not a Tree” by Christopher Alexander, 1965

“Diagrams of Semi-Lattice (left) and Tree (right). According to Alexander (1965), ‘It is not merely the overlap which makes the distinction between the two important. Still more important is the fact that the semi-lattice is potentially a much more complex and subtle structure than a tree.’”