Designing for Irrelevance

My job title is ‘designer’ but I’m reluctant to describe myself as a designer for a number of reasons: first, because the practice has a lot to answer for; and second, because I don’t do a whole lot of design. I help groups of people to collaborate and converse their way through problems towards solutions—activating a latent capability for design in people as they think and work differently, together. The sense of agency that accompanies this is intoxicating. This work can produce strategies, systems, and services, as well as spaces, objects, and graphics. The awareness that design can shape both our (intangible) experiences and our (tangible) environments—and that, as a mode of thinking, it can be accessible, inclusive, and participatory—shifts it from a practice to a stance . In this sense, is design a choice that we make to perceive and move through the world in a contextual and intentional way? What does this mean for the practice of design? I respod to these question by reflecting on my experience of participating in the Indonesia Australia Design Futures project.