Abstract
Graduates of computer science and related degrees represent the capability to continue the evolution of technologies and drive the future in emerging technologies. Some of these graduates will be technological leaders, innovating and pushing the boundaries of technological possibilities throughout their careers. Even though it is a popular opinion that ‘the technical' and ‘design' do not mix, the author's proposition is that graduates with technological degrees must also be ‘design leaders. Design is imperative to meet the needs and desires of users; the design provides some solution to a problem in a user or human-centered manner. Equipping technological students with capabilities for both technological leadership and design leadership will help ensure a human-centered vision for our technological future.
TopDesign And Anticipatory Design
While the topic of leadership in the business world has received a great deal of attention over the years and resulted in substantial literature, design leadership is only recently emerging as a dimension of leadership. Unfortunately, the concept of “design leadership” is muddied by the common use of the word ‘design’. For many, the term design simply refers to the aesthetic appearance of something and conjures images of artworks and galleries. For others, the concept of design is more mature - “design is seen as the manipulation of visual or tangible aspects of physical matter or information at the point of output” (Celi & Rudkin, 2015, p. 61). At the core of the design is the imperative to meet the needs and desires of users; the design provides some solution to a problem in a user-centered way such that users can effectively and efficiently meet their goals.
Design meets technology in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)and its derivative fields. The advent and subsequent ubiquitousness of the personal computer and the accompanying graphical user interfaces provoked the emergence of the field of digital design. From a historical perspective, the field of digital design can be seen to have evolved from the field of HCI as well as the more traditional pen-and-paper field of graphic design.
The beginnings of HCI may be traced back to the National Bureau of Standards conference called Human Factors in Computing Systems which took place in 1982 (Carroll, 2001). This conference, together with the foundation laid by earlier work in cognitive science in the 1960s and 1970s (which related to areas such as software engineering, prototyping, and user interfaces) inspired the subsequent growth and popularization of the field of HCI (Carroll, 2001). HCI is concerned with usability (i.e. the ease with which humans are able to interact with a system in order to achieve their objectives) and has subsequently spawned the fields such as user interface design (UID), user interaction design (UxD), human-centered design, and most recently User experience design (UX).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Emerging Technology: A new technology or innovative use of an existing technology that makes some lasting impact or change on how a task is performed.
Graphic Design: The use of visual language of images (i.e., drawing) can be used to communicate to individuals, communities, and societies. Traditionally graphic designers worked with pen and paper to produce images designed for effective communication of ideas, whether it was for educational, industrial, entertainment, or business purposes. The role of the graphic designer has expanded with the advent of digital technologies to include technical skills in areas such as web development and digital image manipulation, and the user experience of the interface and interaction with technology.
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI): HCI is concerned with usability (i.e., the ease with which humans are able to interact with a system in order to achieve their objectives) and has subsequently spawned the field of user interface design (UID), user interaction design (UxD), human-centered design, and most recently User experience design (UX).
Digital Designer: The role title of the digital designer is being used to refer to design roles that are broad and multidisciplinary and encompass both the elements of visual communication design and human-computer interaction. Alongside these design skills, digital designers are also adept in technical skills including coding for websites and mobile apps.
Anticipatory Design: Zamenopoulos and Alexiou (2007) propose what they call an anticipatory view of design. From the anticipatory perspective the discipline of design must go beyond merely generating a design solution for an apparent problem to communicating a vision of the future. No longer is design simply about output and an endpoint, it is also about envisioning the future and being a catalyst for change and innovation ( Celi & Rudkin, 2015 ).