- dEsiGn for tHE nEtworkEd worLd (^) | 321
The success of new design tools to help work with somewhat intangible
materials has to be measured based on how well it helps the designer
understand the parameters of her design, and make choices based on
experiencing aspects of the design in context. These tools should allow
for different levels of generative and synthetic activities, varying fidel-
ity, working with high-level abstract notions all the way down to the
small functional and aesthetic details of the final product.
The current generation of digital design tools (CAD, Adobe Creative
Suite) created new ways of working on traditional types of outputs.
They gave us the ability to create many more variations of layouts, the
safety of undo and file versions, and access to previously impossible or
difficult processes for creating effects and working with new source
material. However, they did not fundamentally change the component
pieces of the designer’s process, toolbox, or output.
These tools are coming up short as designers are beginning to work
with complex communications between people and machines, interac-
tions and movement that happens over long periods of time and many
individual devices, and large data sets that can’t easily be visualized
using manual methods.
To add to this complexity, the entire notion of finality has changed.
Designers traditionally create outputs that remain static, or have a
small set of variations, once produced. Modality in traditional prod-
ucts was more a result of context, use, customization, or modification.
In new types of products there is no “final version,” rather the product
itself is a system, reacting to its environment and interactions, contin-
ually changing and evolving with use.
TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY FOUNDATION
Designers in the twentieth century needed to internalize and deeply
comprehend things like 2 D and 3 D form, physical environments, and
typography (to name a few areas of practice). The twenty-first century
designer needs to build on these foundations with a number of new
elements. The traditional elements of design were well established by
Rowena Reed-Kostellow and her colleagues in the 1930 s: line, plane,
color, volume, value, and texture. She used these as the basis for her
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