Should the Designer or Client Take the More Prominent Role in Achieving a Successful Design Outcome - Coursework Example

Should The Designer Or The Client Take The More Prominent Role In Achieving A Successful Design Outcome? Your name Course name Course instructor Date of Submission Introduction Background context Design has been developing and evolving rapidly since time immemorial. New methods and techniques have been introduced in the work of design. Technology has been involved and incorporated in designing thus promoting work done by designers highly. Currently, design has proved to be one of the most significant parts of art. Designing is on high demand with millions of people ordering designs of different nature. However, it is difficult at times to achieve a successful design outcome. Issue With rapid growth and development of design, in addition to increased need of attaining successful design outcome, there is supposed to be a mutual relationship between client and designer. Thus, there is increased concern on whether the designer or the client should take the more prominent role in achieving a successful design outcome. Thesis statement When looking at the relationship between the designer and the client, it is apparent that designer is supposed to take more prominent role in attaining a successful design outcome. Author’s points of view This essay is aimed at analyzing issues which arise in the designer-client relationship and argue that, generally, it will analyze reasons as to why the designer is supposed to take more prominent role in achieving a successful design outcome. In order to address this issue, the field of architecture will be used as an example. Topic points 1. The reason why designer has more prominent role in achieving a successful design outcome is the experience of the designer. 2. The designer plays a very important role which relates to the successful outcome of the design because of the creation of designer. 3. The client is not involved fully in design process. Body The reason why designer has more prominent role in achieving a successful design outcome is the experience of the designer. Unlike clients, all designers attend specific colleges, universities, polytechnics or other educational institutions to learn about design. They take design as a course which they usually have to accomplish before graduating as designers. Therefore, it is these skills that they are supposed to apply when designing an object or any piece of work (Rothwell & Kazanas, 2008) Experience is therefore a key factor towards success of any work, and not only in designing. Highly experienced designers usually attain successful design outcome. Hence, designers should be using their experience to produce high quality products. Ivory (2004) asserts that “Even though client and the designer have to cooperate so as to achieve a successful design outcome, client has a little role to play since he/she lacks any skills or experience in this field.” Maybe, the best contribution the client can do is providing quality materials to be used in designing; however, it is the design who will decide materials to be purchased by the client depending on product being designed. Experience is a key value towards achieving successful outcome. Thus, clients don’t have this kind of experience due to the fact that most of them are ignorant when it comes to field of design. Thus, designers should ensure that they are highly experienced and that they have adequate skills necessary in producing quality products. The designer plays a very important role which relates to the successful outcome of the design because of the creation of designer. The reason why designer is supposed to take more prominent role in attaining a successful design outcome is that the designer plays a very important role which relates to the successful outcome of the design because of the creation of designer. Design has a huge responsibility in designing process. In designing, most of successful outcome of the design relies on the designer. This starts from the tools, materials used, and experience of the designer. When designing an object, the design has all responsibilities and freedom, on how, when and where to start his work. Furthermore, the client is in most cases not allowed to be available when the designing process is in progress (Javnaker, 2005). Designers believe that the presence of their client will interfere with their independence and mode of operation. Thus, once the client has paid for a piece of work, designers prefer that the client should leave and that they will contact him/her when the designing process is complete. Hence, it is this fact that renders designers to take more prominent role in achieving successful design outcome. “Design being an occupation, designers ought to be specialized with high quality skills. Designers have reduced contribution of clients towards achieving successful design outcomes by eliminating them in designing process” (Chick & Micklethwaite, 2011). However, the designer has a whole mandate and responsibility to ensure that high quality design is achieved. This has left designers with an important role to play in the designing process in that they have decision in their hands with everything depending solely on them. The reason why designer has more prominent role in achieving a successful design outcome is because client is not involved in design process. According to Javnaker (2005), “Designers have actively resisted interacting with clients. Instead of clients to be included in the design process, they are simply represented in it via intermediaries and surrogates like market information, industry analysis, business press and third party developers.” This distanced has been maintained by designers from users so as to maintain their sense of having controlling over the design process. In realism, the style and content of the designers’ work is strained by an extended network of relations yet a lot of this remains hidden from the designer. Designers deny they are in any sense situated within a network of relations in denying a role for clients in design process. Designers work hard at maintaining the myth of design from nowhere. This is unconscious act due to the fact that designers are encouraged effectively through their training and professional identity to be ignorant of their own positions and the working relations that consist of technical systems, to observe technologies as objects and themselves as their creators. The cause of these attitudes to clients is in regard to the perception that clients threaten, in some sense, the boundaries of the organization. There is a perception that the physical boundaries of the artifact mapped onto the organization’s own boundary within the organization (Chick & Micklethwaite, 2011). Hence, contravention of the artifact’s boundaries becomes equivalent to contravention of the organization’s boundaries. The designer and the client are supposed to be partners in the design process. Designers should learn about client contexts and clients should learn what is strictly possible. This is due to the fact that a combination of specialists and non-specialists working together is the perfect context for successful design outcome. Nevertheless, differences in the kind of professed value of knowledge can prove a considerable obstacle to collaboration between designers and clients. Naturally, designers tend to take accountability for the design procedure for the design procedure and only share this accountability when they consider client to be technically specialist. The client may be simply unable to read drawings or comprehend construction industry terminology. Other sources of demonstration including simulation may be very costly to use in regard to the size of the project. Hence, competence of the client can be a major ingredient to a full interaction. Thus, it is these facts that leave the designer with the prominent role of achieving successful design outcome. That, the client is not fully incorporated in the designing process, hence having little or even no effect on the final products thus not having prominent role towards achieving successful design outcome. Conclusion In summary, designer should take more prominent role in achieving a successful design outcome. This is because most designers have specific knowledge that is necessary in production of quality products. Designers are specialists with certain level of education that is mandatory in production of a successful design. Furthermore, designers have since time immemorial been neglecting clients in the designing process. They don’t include clients in the design process saying that they need freedom. As a result, clients are always ignorant of the designing process a part from those who are technically aware of the process (Ivory, 2004). These facts have left the designer with a prominent role to play towards achieving a successful design outcome. However, when putting into consideration that incorporation between the client and design will lead to even a more successful design outcome, clients should also be taking part in designing process. They full participate fully in the entire process offering the best they can. Designers should also change their perception towards participation of client in the design process. They should not view it as lack of independence but view it as positive contribution. By doing these, designers will be always coming up with successful design outcomes. Bibliography Chick, A. & Micklethwaite, P. 2011, Design for Sustainable Change: How Design and Designers Can Drive the Sustainability Agenda, New York: AVA Publishing. Ivory, C, 2004, “Client, User and Architect interactions in Construction: Implications for Analysing Innovative Outcomes from user-producer interactions in Projects”, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, Vol. 16, No. 4, 2004, 495–508. Javnaker, B, 2005, “Vita Activa: On Relationships between design(ers) and Business”, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Design Issues: Vol. 21, No. 3, 2005, 25-47. Rothwell, W. & Kazanas, H. 2008, Mastering the Instructional Design Process: A Systematic Approach, New York: John Wiley & Sons. Read More