Reading Reflections from "Design A very short Introduction"

The last two chapters of the book were on context of design and its future. Both chapters are crucial for an aspiring Design professional like me to understand, but I found the chapters very dry.  I wished the author used examples, illustrations and photos more often and more effectively.

Context:

Design context basically represent three areas, first and foremost, designers’ views on themselves, then design practices in the industry/business and last but not least is government policy, or lack thereof, on commercial design. It is difficult to contextualize a vast, varied and individualized profession like Design, and that is why designers usually do not have any organized body similar to Medical, Engineering or Architecture professionals creating a framework, rules and regulations, governing the members, and handling how professionals would deal in their work with non-professionals.

Every company selling products and services uses design to promote, compete, advertize and differentiate themselves and their products from competitors, but use vastly different design framework. Some use formalized internal design teams, while others farm it outside to design consultants. Sometimes designers make their own companies and use iconic design to define their products and companies.

By and large, western governments do not have a significant handle on setting and implementing a comprehensive design policy, whereas some Asian governments do.

Future:

Many technological revolutions in the last few decades have fundamentally changed the profession of Design and its workings, and in the fast paced world of 21^st century, it is continuing to do so. As designers help create, market and sustain products, in an ever changing world, they desperately need to be up to date with new technology, especially in the visualization aspect, and how it affects the customer and the product, and need for new products.