The Education of an e-designer

By Steven Heller

Page 8

''Context The objects we design are situated in the world. They are nestled within the boundaries of social and formal order. Their location therein-be it historical or cultural-attaches particular the act of designing and the objects of design. Our awareness of designer's location empowers us. Through that knowledge we can literally reshape underlying ''value propositions'' by proposing new things and places where design happens. Design is potentially disruptive opportunity that lets us interrogate culture (if we choose to use it this way)

''History/Future Design happen in time as well as space. Knowing what happened in the past helps us project into the future. Envisioning particular futures, by necessity engages our knowledge of the past''

''Audience We dont just design for ourselves. audiences engage our work. And audiences are implicit in what we choose to design.''

''Technologies Technologies argument the designers hand (and intensions) through new tools and materials. They afford new design opportunities by expanding of what it is possible to make.''

''If design communicates, it must be indeed 'read'. In this linguistic sense designers are 'writers'. The objects of design convey a wide range of meanings-status and utility among them. The encoding of these meanings through sign systems constitutes notation.''