Anticipation Informed Design

Book excerpt: Design is a form of inventing the future. In some cases, under the pressure of the market, design became problem-solving. This illustrates the fact that, in inventing the future—which is the goal-design develops its own toolbox. This can be used for purposes such as engineering, marketing, social activities. But to reduce design to problem solving is to negate its creative nature. Awareness of possible futures is what drives anticipation-informed design. As opposed to problem-solving, which is usually design-by-commission, anticipation-informed design has a strong ethical dimension: Is the future designers are inventing an expression of respect for the world we live in, or yet another surrender to the pressure of shortsighted self-interest? May this eBook help others adopt anticipation-informed design as their goal. The world we live in is more than ever in need of design that is no longer just a service, but an effective means for disrupting the reality of blindly navigating the choppy waters of a storm that humanity itself created. Trading a meaningful future for a senseless present prosperity undermines sustainability.