“I have since come to believe that social design defines a new kind of designer. It needs to be expansively conceived beyond trained designers to include end users and social participants… It is therefore inherently pragmatic and results-oriented, simultaneously humble and ambitious, and fundamentally optimistic and forward-looking.”

Designing for Social Change — an Essay by William Drenttel (via Design Observer)

This essay is exactly what I needed to read on a Monday morning. I feel like he summarized the bits and pieces of my thoughts about designing for non-profit organizations. After working for a non-profit org for almost 2 years now, the thoughts about doing cool things for the sake of having cool things on my portfolio has run its course. Lately I’ve been thinking about longevity, efficiency (not just with time but with money) and just making things that would work better when I’m designing. 

In his essay, William Drenttel talked about designing with the users and social participants in mind. I feel like it’s an obvious thing to do but I’m not sure that we think about it all the time. What would benefit the community? How does my work successfully impact the lives of the people seeing it, using it, interacting with it?

What I liked about this essay was his sense of optimism—that design can make a difference. I don’t know if it’s my optimistic view on life or my naivety (or both) but I feel like this has always been in the back of my head when I’m designing. I feel like we need a positive mindset and believe that we are making something of value to the people receiving it; that we are not making this so we can sell more t-shirts, get more subscriptions or get more donors (this should be a by-product).

</rant> lol… also partly cross-posted from my other blog.