Design, and design education: How can they get together?

Abstract Designers work with people and for people, and the designers’ main objective is to transform people’s existing situations into better ones. This is not easy: it requires both disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge, and a will to do things well. Focusing on people makes the social sciences become a necessary support for design, and forces design to become an accountable profession, where decisions are based on reliable criteria, and where projects respond to important needs of society. In most design programmes today a simplistic conception of creativity keeps design as an easy and self-serving activity, where students are kept busy with formal/visual and technological concerns. Unfortunately studies of people are normally missing from design education, along with language and evaluation of performance. If design is to develop its full potential as a major contributor to society’s well-being, design education has to change into a rigorous, interdisciplinary and socially responsible activity.