Critical design
Uses design to question the assumptions behind products and technology: objects that provoke reflection instead of solving a problem or selling.
What problem it addresses
Almost all design accepts the world as it is; it rarely asks whether it should be that way.
Principles
Ask questions
The object is for thinking, not for using.
Make people uncomfortable
It shows the effects that commercial design hides.
Be believable
Real enough for the critique to work.
Applications in design
Use it like this
Create an object that makes a technology's assumption visible and use it to open the debate before it is taken for granted.
Avoid
Confusing it with making strange objects with no question behind them.
Don’t fall for it
Explain the context: without it, the critique is taken for a joke or a product.
Connections
Authors and works
- 1999
Anthony Dunne
Coined the term in Hertzian Tales, studying electronic objects.
- 2001
Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby
Developed it with objects that reveal the hidden life of technology in Design Noir.
Sources
Original sources
- Dunne, A. (1999). Hertzian tales: Electronic products, aesthetic experience and critical design. RCA CRD Research Publications.
- Dunne, A., & Raby, F. (2001). Design noir: The secret life of electronic objects. Birkhäuser.
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