- Noora zhou
- Feb 14, 2020
- 5 min read
Updated: Mar 2, 2022
Jie Zhou
MDes. Design Innovation &Service Design
December 2018
“In a fast and profoundly changing world, everyone designs.” (Manzini ,2015)
However, in general, it is mainly up to the professional designers to decide the design of the product. Open design challenges some of the features that define professional design, for example, in the value of mass creativity and the role of the designer as creative master. (Cruickshank, 2014)
What is the open design
In 2010, the term ‘open design’ was first mentioned in the master’s thesis of Ronen Kadushin, and then it was formalized into the open design manifesto. (Cruickshank,2014) The 'open deign' is rooted in the open-source and free-software movements. But, for open design (Figure1), the prime actors are consumers and the value proposition and thrust of that is ‘distributed manufacturing’ processes that emphasize the use-related capabilities of openness. (Avital, 2011)
Open design means sharing solutions, process and assets and gathering feedback from fellow designers, the design community and non-designers alike. (Weber,2015) ‘open’ refers not only to open blueprints, source, hard/software or other design process, but also allow participation of anybody (novice or professional) to its free distribution and documentation and permit all modifications and derivations of it. ‘Design’ means that people are forced to play all their design capabilities to develop their life strategies and put them into practice. (Manzini ,2015)
What is the role of the designer, the user, the client in open design
Stappers and his colleagues describe the hybridization of the designer’s role in 2011. (U: the user; D: the designer; C: the client, who manufactures and distributes the product)
According to diagram(fig.2), there is a narrow linear relationship among the user, the designer, and the client: the client conducts market research, spots an opportunity in the market, and then gives a brief to the designer which specifies design requirements, and expects to receive a concept design in return.
Comparing the old view, the new relationship (fig.3) among the three becomes more interactive and complex in open design. Users are getting savvier, who have more opportunities to participate in design, not only in the early design requirements, but also in the stage of designing output. “Designers also have a shift from ‘designer as genius’ to ‘designer as facilitator’.” (Cruickshank, 2014) They manage this process and need research skills and a talent for faci
For example, in the introductory video of Droog ‘design for download’, the three roles explain the open design:
The user: ‘I am able to customize the design to my own needs and make my own design from the original file.
The designer: ‘I can reach a worldwide audience by sharing blueprints and upload my products from other people's design feedback as well as do not worry about production and cost constraints,
The client: ‘I can more focus on new technologies such as 3d printing, allowing me to make better products under limited conditions. Meeting new kinds of customers means more revenue. (Droog, 2011)
How does open design work
A shift in communications infrastructure is an important factor in how open design has taken shape and the possibilities it offers. It is a transition from the ‘internet of things’ to the things of the internet. In another way, open design means ‘an internet’ to brings creative people together to design the right solution.
OpenIDEO is the perfect practical exposition of open design in some ways. OpenIDEO is an open innovation platform to brings together creative people from all corners of the globe to make an impact on +big societal issues by using IDEO’s design thinking approach. It will access resources to help rapidly develop consumers’ ideas and participation in every part of the design process, including challenges, inspire, ideate, iterate, and implement.
What the value of open design is
“In OpenIDEO’s first six months, the site had 10,000 active users who completed four challenges. To date, IDEO has received more than 1,500 inspirations and 1,000 concepts.”(Hulme,2011)
Great innovation requires widespread collaboration. “The strongest evidence of this correlation is the spike in innovation that occurred around the time of the Industrial Revolution, when people from diverse backgrounds began living and working together in cities for the first time.” (Hulme,2011) The power of open design is to combine very different outlooks and perspectives in a creative process. everyone is very creative and everyone's creativity is different. “Mass individual creativity and masses creating together are having profound implications for the design profession as well as energizing open design.” (Cruickshank,2014)
But when there are a variety of ideas, how to judge or choose becomes a difficult thing. Open design also means that the gatekeeper to production technology is removed, which would offer the potential of simply better design solutions. Like OpenIDEO, it elaborates design thinking steps and provides design tools and testing so that participation of anybody (novice or professional) can also follow the design process. For clients, they have more design choices so that they can produce better products under limited conditions. What’s more, the design methods opened also can subsequently be used by consumers to fabricate products on demand by commercial, off-the-shelf production methods. In a way, this is going to be a design education that allows participants to gain design capability and make changes
Open design is a significant concept but also a tricky one. Firstly, what makes me worried is the openness of open design. If we give too many frames, this may limit people's imagination. But if we give too much freedom, the resulting outcome may not be what we want. There needs to be a careful balance between offering structures of open design and the freedom to go in unexpected directions. (Cruickshank,2014)
In addition, when the boundaries among designers, users and clients are not clear, the responsibilities of roles may become blurred. For designers, as I mentioned before, designers may transform from designing products to inducing mass design and may be more inclined to design education and design process instead production. Sometimes it is very different for some designers to really open up the creative process and welcome others in, and also to define the position of designers. Therefore when in open design, designers need to clearly understand their responsibilities and criteria.
References
Cruickshank, L., 2014. Open design and innovation: facilitating creativity in everyone. The United Kingdom: Grower Publishing Company.
Abel, B.V. and Klaassen, R. and Evers, L. and Troxler, P., 2011. Open Design Now. Amsterdam: BIS publishers.
Manzini, E., 2015. Design, When Everybody Designs: An Introduction to Design for Social Innovation. London: The MIT Press
Billing, J. and Cordingley, T., 2011. Open Design: Driving Product Design Innovation through New Collaborative Working Practices and Professional Models. [e-book] The United Kingdom: Design Principles & Practice: An International Journal. Available through: Glasgow School of Art Library website< https://capitadiscovery.co.uk/gsa/> [Accessed 29 November 2018].
Weber, C., 2015. What is open design? [online] Available at: https://sunlightfoundation.com/2015/07/28/what-is-open-design/ [Accessed 29 November 2018].
Selloni, D.,2015. Interviewed: Ezio Manzini on Design When Everybody Designs[online] Available at: https://www.shareable.net/blog/interviewed-ezio-manzini-on-design-when-everybody-designs [Accessed 30 November 2018].
IDEO, 2016. OpenIDEO: A Platform to Harness Collaboration for Social Good [online] Available at: https://www.ideo.com/post/a-platform-to-harness-collaboration-for-social-good [Accessed 30 November 2018].
Avital, M., 2011. The generative bedrock of open design [online] Available at: http://opendesignnow.org/index.html%3Fp=405.html [Accessed 30 November 2018].
Stappers, P. J.,2011. Creation& Co: user participation in design[online] Available at: http://opendesignnow.org/index.html%3Fp=421.html [Accessed 30 November 2018].
Hulme, T.,2011. Social problem solving by collaboration[online] Available at: http://opendesignnow.org/index.html%3Fp=449.html [Accessed 30 November 2018].
Droog, 2011. Design for download [online] Available at: https://www.droog.com/project/design-download [Accessed 30 November 2018].