Social design
Applies design to social needs, such as health, housing or inclusion, often together with the communities affected and not just for the market.
What it deals with
The market does not serve those who cannot pay. Many social solutions come from communities themselves, and design can help them work and grow.
Principles
Social need
You start from what people need, not from what sells.
With the community
Everybody designs; the expert designer helps make it work.
Scale what works
Connect small initiatives so they can grow.
Applications in design
Use it like this
First look for what the community is already doing.
Avoid
Arriving with a solution designed from outside.
Don’t fall for it
Think about who will keep the project going when the design team leaves.
Methods and tools
- ApproachParticipatory designDesigning with the people affected as full partners, not just as informants.
- MethodGenerative toolsMaterials for people to make something, such as a collage, and express what is hard to put into words.
- ApproachDesign justiceDesigning with the communities most affected, to share what design gives and takes more fairly.
Connections
Authors and works
- 2002
Victor Margolin and Sylvia Margolin
Proposed a social model of design as opposed to the market model.
- 2015
Ezio Manzini
Distinguished the design everybody does from expert design, and explained how the latter supports social innovation.
Sources
Original sources
- Margolin, V., & Margolin, S. (2002). A “social model” of design: Issues of practice and research. Design Issues, 18(4), 24–30. View source: Margolin, V., & Margolin, S. (2002)
- Manzini, E. (2015). Design, when everybody designs: An introduction to design for social innovation. MIT Press.
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