So what is a designer’s true purpose? Is it to increase happiness, discover beauty, understand universal truths? Is there something philosophical and deep to what they are trying to accomplish or are they merely looking for beauty in form, object, and experience? Scientists have clear goals: to discover and understand our world. Philosophers seek to understand the nature of being and morality. And artists exist to discovery beauty and meaning. But what does that leave designers?
Like always, we exist between many different fields; we are creative, yet analytical. We seek beauty, but understand function. Our work pushes us to concern ourselves with existing problems in the world and to search for solutions. We concern ourselves with the feelings and emotions of our users. At an ideal state, we are very empathetic people, trying to understand the feelings and frustrations our users have when they use our work. My first initial thought is that we exist to increase the happiness in our world: a noble goal, but not a complete one. If you have not read Brave New World I implore you to read it. It raises the question, is the goal of a society to increase universal happiness, or to understand its universal truths? On one side rests a utopian society, filled with meaningful employment (and purpose), bountiful resources, and free love. Yet it requires a strictly enforced caste system, pavlovian reinforcement, and limited information. On the other, rests a more traditional society, kept in a reservation. Disease is rampant, starvation everywhere, and life is difficult and hard. However, those that rest there are aware of their world; there are no veils and curtains to obscure the workings of the society that they live in.
So I raise this point: for a designer, is the express purpose of their job to maximize happiness? Is pleasure without truth meaningful?
