ABSTRACT Defsa 2011

Kate Chmela-Jones Tel: (016)950 9894 Fax: (016)950 9895 kate@vut.ac.za

Vaal University of Technology Visual Arts & Design ______________________________________________________________________________________

Considering design with intent within Graphic Design at a University of Technology. The concept of user centred design (UCD) or design with intent has been linked to the notion of design for behavioural change (persuasion technologies, interaction design etc) at various international design schools for some time. Understanding how user behaviour can, and does, influence and override technological solutions is critical for engineers and designers wishing to effectively tackle social problems such as increasing energy consumption, eco solutions, housing, effective wayfinding design as well as the design of information brochures/pamphlets etc. Design with intent begins with the notion that [t]here are varying degrees of success to which the designers' intentions regarding product use are realised. In designing products, designers are also designing user activity, which does not occur independently of the product (Stanton and Baber, Science Direct: 1998a). Designers influence behaviour and social practice from a distance through the products and services that we create based on our understanding of consumer behaviour-centrally placed users influence design which is created to support them. Through traditional UCD practice designers are encouraged not to impose their own values on user experience. However increasingly issues of sustainability and social change are forcing designers to reconsider their previously detached role (Fabricant: available online). It has been argued (Buchanan, 1985 and Redstrom, 2006) that all design is intended to influence user behaviour, in the sense that the artefacts around us contain socially constructed scripts for users e.g. if we position a chair at a workstation, we are influencing a user to follow the script and sit down. Increasingly designers acknowledge that instead of aspiring to influence user behaviour from a distance, there is a need for the products we design to have more immediate impact through direct social engagement.

Design with intent is inherently linked with multidisciplinary approaches, the notion of design + persuasion, persuasion technologies, the developing field of Interaction design as well as sustainability, eco solutions, and engaged consumers. Although this aspect of the teaching of design is usually entrenched within an IT, user-interface design or even an industrial or environmental design department the concept is linked so closely to the idea of branding and consumer experience that it makes sense to include aspects of this within a re-evaluated Graphic Design curriculum. However, within the construct of a South African University of Technology the current Graphic Design curriculum is firmly encased within the traditional view of what constitutes Graphic Design practice. According to Fabricant (available online) several design faculties have embraced the idea of these new design practices. He cites the example of the Industrial Design Department at TU Delft, which has made dealing with issues of sustainability and social change an explicit goal, requiring designers to embrace societal transformation as an integral part of their work. Students are reviewed on this basis at the end of each semester. Furthermore Fabricant cites the areas of persuasion design, catalyst design, and performance design as the three most prominent emerging design strategies. It can be argued that the inclusion of aspects of 'design for intent within a Graphic Design curriculum will result in a generation of designers that know not only how to design a successful Corporate Identity for example, but also how to create effective design which will motivate specific consumer actions and create a better understanding of consumer motivation and decision making. It is only through the understanding these factors that effective strategies can be devised to change consumer behaviour.