Bill Moggridge - What is design?

What is design? Bill Moggridge, a design consultant discusses in his 'What is design?' presentation at the Smithsonian Design Institute the principals and successes in design. He starts of his talk by making the statement that in order to accept successful designs, one must accept and discover the bad ones. This is supported through his examples where the users changed the appearance/purpose of the designs in order to make them work better. This leads on to Moggridge discussing the design process where he separates the process into two categories: understanding people and prototyping. Both these forms rely on the interaction the product has with the intended market. Moggridge shows the importance of these fields as detrimental to the success of a design overall. If the design is to be successful, the designer needs to understand the nature of the market and the people that they are designing for. Designing a product aimed for the aging market, then styling or marketing it to youth is an example of a designers lack of understanding both towards the design process and the people they are designing for. Prototyping is another great way designers can gain a greater understanding of their products impact on the market, looking both at the aesthetic implications and the functional attributes. As the product is intended to perform a purpose, the functionality of the design is important, this can gauged by producing movies, models, rough mock-ups and realistic 3D models. Some examples Moggridge presented involved intricate movies displaying the intended use of the product. This is used to gauge whether the product will perform its intended purpose, while also selling the idea the designer had to the respected individuals supporting/commissioning the designer. Some examples Bill Moggridge presented were introducing new uses for technology into the market. Some were futuristic in the concept and design, while others can be utilized in the current market. Overall, the presentation by Bill Moggridge showed the importance of the design process within context. The importance of prototyping and understanding the products intended market make or break the design and it's success. I believe his talks informed the audience how one can only judge good benign when bad design is mad obvious. This in turn allows the viewer to make an educated assertion about a design.