Value is what human beings live by; it is the blood of our identities, narratives, and experiences. We can understand design, or more specifically designing, as a process of forming/articulating, facilitating, and/or organizing value within situations. Designing can be motivated as a process of navigates potential configurations of forms, ideas, and experiences that achieve a relevance that can be used, appreciated, cherished, or purchased.
A growing designer can be nurtured by an experience of investigating the phenomena, processes, circumstances and/or forms of value. This Inquiry 4, “What is value and how does it work with design” is intending to facilitate such an experience.
(1) Independently develop a functional and generative inquiry into the occurrence of value, as it is determined or facilitated by designed artifacts and/or processes, that develops insight that is somehow implicates a relevance between value’s occurrence and the intentions and outcomes of a designer’s work.
(2) Manage and lead the completion of an inquiry through determining and applying methods of analysis
(3) Determine and produce an inquiry outcome that articulates the insight generated by the inquiry method
(4) Uncover and clarify a relationship between “value” and design(ing)
Design and complete an inquiry that in someway investigates the phenomena, processes, circumstances and/or forms of value as it has been determined or facilitated by a designed artifact and/or process.
Determine the following four aspects of your inquiry:
(1) An example of something that has been design that somehow is of value, creates value, or is experiences as valuable.
(2) Develop a method of analysing the value that occurs as a result of the example of design you have identified. Consider how the design is used, why it was designed, why it is where you find it, how it works, who uses it, how they experience it, what it means to them, etc. For each of these aspects of the design being as it is consider; what difference is made, what investment of time, money, effort has been made, what could an alternative be resulting in what difference, etc. Basically think about the ways value might be happening and how as a result of this design.
(3) Develop a way of communicating/presenting what insight of the values related to your design example and produce this as the outcome of your inquiry – a documentation of what you have learned from the inquiry.
(4) Write a brief evaluation of what you have learned offers to designers. Explain how the insight you have developed is important for designers to be aware of and consider. In essence, how would knowing what you now know about value through design benefit you as a designer?)
Although not a strict requirement it is advised that you commit a “time-budget” of five hours be dedicated to this inquiry. This amount of time will provide enough for a process of development and implementation while also being manageable within the time-frame of this inquiry section of our course.