{"id":19320,"date":"2020-03-02T16:00:43","date_gmt":"2020-03-02T16:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marvel7077.wpengine.com\/?p=19320"},"modified":"2020-12-14T11:48:16","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T11:48:16","slug":"the-next-century-of-design-education-bauhaus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marvelapp.com\/blog\/the-next-century-of-design-education-bauhaus\/","title":{"rendered":"The Next Century of Design Education"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of Bauhaus. More than a design aesthetic, Bauhaus was a movement, with its school contributing to an era of thought leadership that shaped our modern world. The founding principles of Bauhaus lauded function: the idea that design should scale and serve society. That impact is still felt today in the way we teach the practice of design. Bauhaus led to the creation of disciplines like industrial design and product design, focusing on people\u2019s needs as a way to inspire form. Methodologies like human-centered design and design thinking respond to the teachings of Bauhaus and align to a certain modernist approach to mass-produced artistry.<\/p>\n

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\"The founding principles of Bauhaus lauded function: the idea that design should scale and serve society.\"<\/p><\/span><\/blockquote>\n

With the Bauhaus centennial behind us, I challenge the industry in 2020 to move into a meta-modernist approach: to redesign design itself through education. In 1919, the founders of Bauhaus were responding to a profound change in society and culture where industrialization changed everyday lives at an unprecedented scale. They believed something was missing: that in exchange for productivity, we lost art, humanity, and nature. Bauhaus sought to correct this and translate mere objects into artistic \u2014 and therefore human \u2014 connection. They taught that form and function are not mutually exclusive.<\/p>\n

A century later, this theory still holds weight. But the industrialization that necessitated Bauhaus has shifted to the digitization of the planet with an arguably greater impact on everyday lives. The scale of design has bled from the tangible into the intangible. It\u2019s not only the objects we create and use, but it\u2019s also the intelligence held within them. The straining ecological effects of mass production are no longer our only concern. We are now mass-producing feelings<\/em> at an unprecedented scale.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"Illustration:<\/a>Illustration: Maxwell Prendergast<\/p>\n

We create digital experiences that reach millions (often billions) instantaneously, experiences that engage you and \u201cmake\u201d you react. Manufacturing feelings has a profound effect on society, creating enormous opportunities to empower, to connect, to motivate, to give joy. But like all technology, it can also have unintended consequences that create harm, isolation, fear, and doubt. Function now extends into the realm<\/a> of behavioral science. As designers, we influence the entirety of these experiences. We influence society and humanity at scale.<\/p>\n

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\"Function now extends into the realm<\/a> of behavioral science and as designers, we influence the entirety of these experiences.\"<\/p><\/span><\/blockquote>\n

And yet our design institutions still hold to the material tenets founded by Bauhaus. These pedagogical tools are insufficient for the future that awaits us and even the here and now for which we design. Political, behavioural, cultural, sociological, ethical, and philosophical implications are at play more than ever. Every interaction is weighted with unintended consequences that affect the way people move about the world. Given the realities \u2014 and unrealities \u2014 technology creates<\/a>, we have a responsibility to address our foundational knowledge and bring more consciousness into design education. Designers in every sector need to be equipped with the know-how to have these conversations.<\/p>\n

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\"Inclusion, equity, community, ethics, trust \u2014 are these the Design 101 courses of the future?\"<\/p><\/span><\/blockquote>\n

I believe this starts with a critical design rethinking that brings these conceptual frameworks into our pedagogical standards. If Bauhaus allowed a safe space for experimentation and testing for material designs, this new school allows for the same on theoretical designs. We need a safe space to test these concepts before they alter society at scale.<\/p>\n

This is meant as a provocation for, not a disparagement of, the design industry as it stands. I recognize the privilege of speaking from the podium of design in tech. But this also means my biases lie in seeing the impact of theoretical design firsthand. Across the tech industry, we are always learning from our impact on people in the real world, and this is what compels and propels this concept. Inclusion, equity, community, ethics, trust \u2014 are these the Design 101 courses of the future? A basis for \u201cgood design\u201d under a meta-modernist definition leads to new practices and methodologies that address today\u2019s societal challenges. What follows is a framework for the Bauhaus of the next 100 years.<\/p>\n

Reflect<\/h2>\n

Human-centered design<\/a> addresses customer need but not always customer motivation. A new curriculum would teach the psychology behind certain behaviours and how to bring a person\u2019s feelings into the iterative design process. This requires a personal reflection on the assumptions and biases we build into our designs, recognizing the knowledge gap that exists between our work and the customer\u2019s real life. Rarely is there time for this critical analysis within our business cycles, and so it needs to be foundational training that becomes second nature. We need to learn how to continuously ask ourselves these questions:<\/p>\n