Date: 03-03-2019
Response to Janet Hethorn’s “User-Centered Innovation: Design Thinking and Sustainability”
This excerpt of Hethorn’s article basically deals with what attitude designers should hold towards consumers – she suggests that they focus on an individual level, not grouping them. This idea may not be completely new, but it gets me wondering what she really means by that. “The designer is not the giver of taste and the consumer simply a receiver. This is not a sustainable model. Instead, think about being the interpreter of visual desire for the person (and people) for whom you are designing.” According to Hethorn, the foundation of sustainable fashion is that designers base their work more on the demands of consumers as individuals, which reminds me of an idea that may or may not be relevant. I don’t remember it exactly as it is, but it goes something like, “Customers don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” This quote was from Steve Jobs, who changed the world with iPhone. It seemed at first that these two quotes could be contradicting, one stressing that designs should be for consumer’s desire, the other claiming that they don’t even know themselves. But then I realized what Jobs meant is not that consumers have no idea what they want, but that they don’t realize it until they see it – deep down they know what kind of a product they’re looking for, and designers’ job is to realize that. Another quote from Hethorn’s book goes: “You may find that the most informative interviews do not answer all of the questions on your list, but the details revealed through conversation uncover findings that your plan didn’t anticipate.” As the consumer expresses their expectations towards a product, chances are that it goes far beyond what the design was expecting – that’s because the consumer knows vaguely what they need, but since it doesn’t exist yet, it’s hard to specify what it is. Good designers find that out for them. What’s sustainable about that is that consumers’ demand evolves constantly, and thus designers’ work develops accordingly – it’s not a one-sided conveyance.