Designer's responsibility: methodological and ethical dimensions: Fid-Bau Portal

Designer's responsibility: methodological and ethical dimensions

Gasparski, Wojciech W.

AbstractA designer is one who designs, where “to design”—from Latin designare—means “to mark out”. Those who design professionally are professional designers who “see and seek value in new designs”. Seeing and seeking might be done in two ways: narrower or broader. According to the approach characteristic for design-methodological reductionism, those things that are designed are considered the designed objects. In this approach, the designer's task is limited to artifacts narrowly understood. Systemic design methodology describes that “what is designed” in terms of an object of design. In the domain of designing, like in any kind of human professional activity, two types of moral dimensions are identified: endo- and egzomorality. The first deals with the moral code of design activity, the second with social responsibility of what is done by professional designers. Both define elements of designer's accountability: first, in respect of truth and honesty in relation to the designer's product—a design, second, in respect to societal benefit and not harm, both in respect to relevancy of what is designed for practical use. Once, producing and teaching good science is the main tasks of scholars, those among the scholars who are involved in design science are responsible not only for producing good design science but also for educating designers as reflective practitioners conscious of what every designer should know about objects of design and ethics related to the profession.