What is Socially Responsive Design?

We kicked off our interviews by asking our different

design researchers, educators and practitioners
if they consider themselves as socially responsive
designers and how they understand this term.

Maziar Raein · All design has social consequences.

I think the difference between socially responsive
design and other kinds of design is that it chooses
to actively and consciously engage with these
issues. Designers have always had an ethical respon-
sibility but quite often they’ve ignored this, as in the
case of Philippe Starck. In my eyes, over the past
five or six years there’s been a dramatic increase
in younger designers really driven to engage with
social issues. As an educator, I believe that socially
responsive design has come to the fore because
of the death of modernism. Since that dominating
‘grand narrative’ has died and the reaction after-
wards of the playful or deconstructive approach has
come and gone, there are different ideas, energies
and motivations surging through design.
Socially Adam Thorpe · In 1971, Victor Papanek said, “Design
has become the most powerful tool with which
Responsive man shapes his tools and environments (and, by
extension, society and himself)”. He proposed that
designers who engage with market led activities
Design (that have a negative impact on both society and
environment) should contribute either 1/10 of their
time or 1/10 of their income to socially responsible
projects whilst continuing with their jobs. More
recent notions of social design are less dismissive
Hannah Jones and Anette Lundebye
of the market and economic imperatives. Socially
responsive design is not oppositional to market con-
What happens when designers shift their siderations but prioritises social considerations
focus from satisfying consumer desires, to over those of the market.
facilitating new social possibilities? In recent
design history, different labels have popped Sanneke Duijf · Socially
responsive design is about
up to describe design research practices that using social situations as a starting point of an
engage with social issues. These include investigation. Rather than being locked in the
participatory design, service design, trans- design studio you need to get your hands dirty in
formative design, metadesign and social design. the field. Design should bring about social develop-
This article explores the notion of socially ment and it can act as a force for change. Socially
responsive design, a term coined by design responsive design does this.
researchers Adam Thorpe and Lorraine Gamman
based in the Design Against Crime Research Clare Brass · Socially
responsive design needs
Centre, London, UK. It describes design that to cover all the three bases, the environmental, the
makes a social impact, is driven by social issues social and the economical. It is about identifying
and delivers social change. Design researchers societal and environmental problems, thinking
Hannah Jones and Anette Lundebye attempt about specific problems in detail but also zooming
to ‘connect the dots’ between a range of socially out to see what other problems might be connected
responsive design approaches taking place and then to join the dots. The main thing you
in the UK, Netherlands and Norway. They set out end up designing is relationships. It’s design with
to interview six design experts from their people not for people.
network to discover how they define socially
responsive design, what it feels like to Duncan Kramer · I’mnot big on design terms or titles
be involved in this practice; and how it’s likely as they rarely reflect my experience of designing,
to impact on design in the future. which foremost is collaborative. We most often talk
about ‘good work’. It’s not very articulate, but WE
know what we mean.

Marco van Hout · I

see an increasing interest in
socially responsive design within the context of
experience-driven design. In fact, I believe they
are interdependent and they share the concept of
emotion. Emotions are the drivers behind (social)
behaviour as well as behind the experiences we

the dots #5 article 44

 Anette Lundebye and
Hannah Jones

have in general. Something that is becoming more big green roof companies are not interested in.
important in experience design is the impact of But to us it’s a real opportunity to spread things
products on people’s general health, well-being and at a grass roots level.
happiness. In the past decade or so, the Internet
and developments in mobile technology have com- Sanneke Duijf · I
led a group of second year Graphic
pletely changed our perspectives of the world and Design students from AKV | St. Joost Academy as
our social environment. Take the recent events in part of a SlowLab research programme in a neigh-
the Middle East for example. It made us feel closer bourhood in Amsterdamă. Working in teams, they
to the people actually fighting for change far, far were developing prototypes for a Slow Loket, a
away and made us feel a shared responsibility. mobile information point to capture the expertise
and potential of that area. This was a local platform
Can you give us a practical example of socially for interaction and dialogue, a place to share and
responsive design? exchange ideas, obstacles, opportunities, resources
Each of our experts were asked to come up with and more. The challenge for the students was to
examples of socially responsive design from their find the right strategies to make contact, inform,
own practice or inspiring examples from the work gather stories and make connections between the
of others. Lloyd Hotel – the centre of the project – and the
neighbourhood. (www.socialdesignresponse.com/
Duncan Kramer · Okay, so if you take PlantLock, to me 2011/10/19/slow-loket/)
it’s a piece of political design. I say political because
it’s supposed to affect the way people perceive the Maziar Raein · Thereare so many things happening at
world around them and how they act. It’s encourag- the moment. On our blog we have surveyed a range
ing people to cycle and to grow things in urban of examples. I’m inspired by the brilliant Dutch
areas. These are two activities that have been made traffic engineer, Hans Monderman who took away
difficult because they don’t fit the dominant models. the traffic light system. He showed that instead of
For example, loads of infrastructure is provided for giving information, you take away information and
driving and that in turn that creates jobs etc… fuel- put responsibility on the road users and this has
ling a self-perpetuating system. Cycling isn’t like increased road safety. (www.socialdesignresponse.
that. It’s a much wilder more elementary thing. It’s com/archive/)
hard to control and it’s hard to make money from.
Our Green Roof Shelters is an attempt to get real Clare Brass · The organisation I set up is called the
biodiversity-supporting green roofs onto small SEED foundation, which stands for Social Environ-
buildings and structures in the city. It’s a gap the mental Enterprise with Design. We have been

45 socially responsive design the dots #5

Socially responsive design working on a project over the past couple of years
called the ‘Food Loop Project’ asking if it is possi-
is not oppositional to market ble to create a design-led enterprise that addresses
the issue of food waste in urban environments?
considerations but prioritises We thought that picking food waste would be a big
enough problem to generate an income from it.
social considerations over So we tried to design a way of capturing the value
of food waste, which is very valuable. It is actually
those of the market. Adam Thorpe worth right now at least £165 per tonne and this
will rise to about £225 per tonne in the next couple

ă of years due to EU legislations. We started looking

at people’s attitudes and behaviours towards waste
and to services and set about changing people’s
perspective on waste. So, it is about helping
the community to take ownership of its own waste
streams and to turn them into value streams
(http://foodloop.org.uk/).

Marco van Hout · An example that immediately comes

to my mind is a prototype concept for an app that
we created some years ago called ‘Snapje’. This app
engages both parents and children with autism.
The Snapje concept has been developed to enable
children to get skills in emotion recognition in rela-
tion to the context. A parent can take photos of
situations that have an emotional meaning. Photos
can be taken of familiar people, but also from the
child itself. On the one hand it is very useful to learn
from emotions of others in relation to the context.
On the other hand, it is useful to learn the relation
between the context and an emotion through own
experiences of the emotion. (www.emotiondiary.
com/snapje/)

Adam Thorpe · Designs against crime like the M stand

designed by Bikeoff (an initiative of the Design
Against Crime Research Centre, University of the
Arts London), are the result of thousands of obser-
vations of cyclists parking their bikes and over a
year of cycle theft research investigating the most
secure way of parking to resist common bike theft
techniques. The main design driver for the stands
was increasing the security of cyclists locking prac-
tices to reduce cycle theft and increase cycling.
In addressing this societal concern new product
innovation was achieved. (www.bikeoff.org/)

What does it feel like to participate in socially

responsive design?
We wanted to understand from our interviewees
how being involved in socially responsive design
is different to traditional design in terms of the
emotional feedback from the process.

Sanneke Duijf · Doing socially responsive design feels

inclusive. Design is part of our lifestyle and part of
the world we live in so therefore we should include
this world actively in our design processes. Next to
that, it is quite satisfying engaging with users and
receive responses from them, to acquire an insight
into their situation to empower them to take action.

Maziar Raein · It feels more meaningful. There is a sense

of satisfaction, a sense of learning and a sense of
being part of something bigger. It’s also fun and con-
fusing and playful. There is a lot of experimenting
that goes wrong. It’s very active, fast and messy.
The designer moves from a monologue to a dialogue

the dots #5 article 46

 Duncan Kramer – Green Roof
Shelter, Green Roof Shelters Ltd.
www.greenroofshelters.co.uk

Duncan Kramer – PlantLock,

Front Yard Company.
www.frontyardcompany.co.uk

47 socially responsive design the dots #5

 Sanneke Duijf – Slow Lloyd Parade project, fortune-telling
www.socialdesignresponse.com/2011/10/19/slow-loket

the dots #5 article 48

 Residents collects
food waste

Residents and staff benefit

from food produced

Caddies from the estate

are collected by staff

Waste composted on site

Fruit and vegetables
planted on the estate

Seedlings
are planted
Compost is seasoned

Clare Brass – Food Loop

diagram, SEED Foundation.
www.foodloop.org.uk

with other stakeholders and the world around them. Adam Thorpe · Socially responsive design activity feels
What is unnerving for the designer is that aesthet- relevant and contemporary. But it’s not always easy
ics take a back seat. In graphic design, many young and clear cut. Complex and contradictory might also
designers now say that they don’t care about style. be relevant descriptors at times. What designers are
The issue isn’t about colour or fonts but it’s about responsible for are the decisions they make and
the idea behind it, which is unnerving but exciting. they should at least understand as much as they
It’s about aesthetics serving a concept. can about the likely impacts of their proposals and
even consult with those affected by the proposals
Clare Brass · I’ve always had good fun. Part of the fun to try and ensure that their proposals have the
has always been working with people, now it’s an desired impacts.
even more critical component. When you are doing
a traditional design project where a product is at the Can you give us a scenario for socially responsive
end of the line, you know where you’re going and design in 2020?
what your end role is. But with this kind of work, you What kind of futures do our interviews predict for
know what you want to achieve, but the goalposts this approach to design?
are moving all the time, things change. For example,
when there was an election everything changed for Maziar Raein · Paola
Antonelli said, “In 25 years
the food loop project. It’s really scary. The other dif- designers will be at the nexus of things”. More and
ficult thing is earning a living with social innovation. more design will be focused around social needs
(e.g. water). There will be more diversity in design,
Marco van Hout · Engaging
people, making things with designers working alongside business people.
more pleasurable is one thing, making a change in There’ll be many more design thinkers. We will be
people’s social context, wellbeing and even happi- questioning systems and situations. Designers will
ness is a completely different story and obviously have to take stronger lines and take more direct
rewarding. I am extra proud that my fellow board stands. The days for the bigger agencies with moral
member (of the Design & Emotion Society, ed.) ambivalence will go and we’ll move towards net-
Pieter Desmet has initiated the Delft Institute of work based, smaller firms with people working
Positive Design, which aims to stimulate the devel- together around ideas they share. Because we have
opment of knowledge that supports designers in become saturated with products around us, my
their attempts to design for happiness, for human students say, “I’ve got enough things I don’t need
flourishing. (http://studiolab.ide.tudelft.nl/diopd/) more”. They’ve grown up with ‘more’ as teenagers
and they now seem to want less and to do more.
Duncan Kramer · It feels normal. I think this will spill into the way they work.

49 socially responsive design the dots #5

People are increasingly looking Sanneke Duijf · In
the future socially responsive design
will be an integral part of design education. I think
for products and services schools are starting to expose students more and
more to society by placing projects in real life con-
that fulfil life goals that texts, often working together with (commercial)
businesses but also with governmental institutions.
go beyond material wealth and Yet better would be to work more socially. The
organisation Design in Society is a good example
are more valuable for social for that; it’s an interdisciplinary program for stu-
dents using design strategy as a method to tackle
cohesion, health and general complex urban issues. (www.designinsociety.nl)

well-being. Marco van Hout Clare Brass · Our traditional economic model doesn’t
work and we’re finding it out and it’s painful. I think

ă there’s an appetite, there’s a lot happening here,

not only in the design field, there’s a lot happening
in every walk of life. There is a spirit of unrest and
because we know now much better how the system
works and that there is a lot of unfairness, we are
in a much better position to change things. I think
today’s generation of design schools are starting the
ball rolling, people are launching, new principles,
new ideas, new concepts and we’re getting there.

Duncan Kramer · Hopefully there will be fewer designers

twatting around. There’s so much that needs doing.
Everyone should ask more questions of the people
living around them. And listen to the answers. For
socially useful design to succeed, I sometimes think
it’s best for it to find new ways of using existing
commercial frameworks. Maybe borrowing the
tools of the mainstream and carving a radical niche
alongside it.

Marco van Hout – Snapje

Phone App, Copyright 2012 –
Pascal Karthaus – SusaGroup BV
www.emotiondiary.com/snapje

the dots #5 article 50

 Marco van Hout · I like the description on the website London-based Hannah Jones is programme leader of MA Design
of the Delft Institute of Positive Design: “Since the Futures and a metadesign researcher in the department of
design at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her doctoral research
industrial revolution, all of our society – our work- explores awkward space in cities. (www.gold.ac.uk/design/staff/
places, homes, transportation, and communication, jones/; http://metadesigners.org/)
have increasingly become infused with design...
London-based Anette Lundebye is a design strategist,
Research has shown that our dishwashers, com- researcher and facilitator. She is a lecturer at Regent’s College
puters, radios, cars, and other products we are sur- in London, and lectures on design for sustainable futures,
rounded with, do not make us particularly happy.” Socially Responsive Design (SRVD) and Metadesign at various
institutions in the UK and in Scandinavia. (www.lundebyetham.com;
People are increasingly looking for products and http://metadesigners.org)
services that fulfil life goals that go beyond material
wealth and are more valuable for social cohesion, London-based Adam Thorpe is a Reader in Socially Responsive
Design and Innovation at Central Saint Martins College of Arts
health and general well-being. I believe in the future and Design, London and Co-founder Vexed Generation and Vexed
a lot of designers will want to be part of a group Design Ltd. (www.csm.arts.ac.uk/research/staffresearchprofiles/
of change-makers. We won’t be designing anymore adamthorpe/)

for the sake of designing, we will only be designing London-based Clare Brass is a service designer and social
for a purpose, such as meeting real needs. Between entrepreneur. She is founder of SEED Foundation and currently
now and 2020, it is design’s time to shine. I think developing the Food Loop project. She is Head of SustainRCA,
at the Royal College of Art, and is Senior Design Tutor in IDE
socially responsive design and related approaches (Innovation Design Engineering). (www.seedfoundation.org.uk/;
will have to be leading in this movement. Luckily, www.foodloop.org.uk)
I see lots of signals that illustrate exactly that.
London-based Duncan Kramer is a designer with long experience
of design solutions for public space, and director at Material,
Adam Thorpe · Much of what we perceive as ‘future’ a co-founder of the Front Yard Company, a design-led UK manu-
issues are visible in the present. We are preparing facturing enterprise as well as a director at Green Roof Shelters Ltd.
(www.frontyardcompany.co.uk; http://greenroofshelters.co.uk/)
for ‘more of the same’ as far as social scenarios to be
addressed by design, perhaps with more intensity Oslo-based Maziar Raein is a graphic designer and Associate
and urgency. Design scenarios that address issues Professor and Head of MA Design at the Oslo National Academy
of the Arts. (www.socialdesignresponse.com/archive/)
linked to an ageing population, zero oil scenarios
and rising population numbers and increasing Utrecht & Oslo-based Sanneke Duijf is a Socially Responsive
population density. The changes in climate and Designer and researcher. She is founder of ‘Solution Office’ and
teaches at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts in Norway as
weather will also likely result in changing environ- well as AKV St Joost in the Netherlands. (http://cargocollective.
mental scenarios. com/sannekeduijf/Solution-Office)

Netherlands-based Marco van Hout is creative director of

Conclusion SusaGroup. He works with companies and organisations such as:
So to connect the dots, what is socially responsive Bic, Energizer, Fidelity, KLM, Microsoft, Philips and Unilever.
design? In line with societal changes, we are seeing Marco is a board member of the International Design for Emotion
Society and a frequent public speaker, visiting lecturer and work-
designers that are forging new roles as facilitators, shop facilitator. (www.design-emotion.com; www.marcovanhout.com;
mediators and change agents. Design thinking is www.susagroup.com)
moving out of the box and into the world. Practices
are shifting away from previous industrial design
models that were primarily market-led towards
purpose-led ways of intervening and offering solu-
tions for specific issues. Rather than looking at
people as mere passive consumers, they are included
as active participants and offered a chance to
co-design the lifestyles and livelihoods we want.
Design is therefore becoming entangled in the
lives of its users and collaborators.
Since context and stakeholders seem to be
so central to these design processes, the outcomes
might not be so easily recognisable as an Eames
chair or a Koolhaas building. It is more likely to be
an unassuming community garden, a collaborative
toolkit or even an intangible form of collective
knowledge. As such, these designs might not nec-
essarily be ‘beautiful’ in a traditional design sense.
But as design approaches they enable empathy,
belonging, exchange and engagement – all impor-
tant ingredients for social cohesion. We might
therefore say that it’s design that champions the
empathetic over iconic. Meeting real needs, being
involved in something bigger, feeling that one’s
work is meaningful and having fun seem to be
strong drivers for socially responsive designers. The
question is how can we make this an accessible
and viable route for more designers to pursue?

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51 socially responsive design the dots #5