Two methods of design
Craft
Design is a craft at the beginning. In the past design still preserved in the museum, we can observe that most of these designs are a process of pursuing beauty.
For example, the traditional Chinese porcelain, from the pottery in the tribal era to the “Tang three-colors glaze” in Tang Dynasty, to the “bright blue glaze” in the Ming and Qing Dynasties (the golden age of the development of Chinese ceramics). In this development process, we can find that Chinese people’s pursuit of porcelain is more about beautiful things than the first practicality.
In modern daily life, these crafts are constantly meeting people’s daily needs.
But the attitude of design as a handicraft has gradually failed to meet the needs of people. And when design encounters more macro problems (such as natural environment or human self-awareness), the improvement that crafts can make is very small.
Mode of thinking
In addition to treating design as crafts, more and more designers regard design as a mode of thinking. With the development of industry and information technology and the change of people’s life style, the traditional design method has no longer fully met the needs. At this time, many new design disciplines appeared, such as interaction design. In interaction design, designers use the research of user experience and psychological activities to solve problems.
Design as Both Craft and a Way of Thinking
We can’t compare which is the better way. They should make progress together. The progress of technology provides conditions for the thinking mode of design, and the progress of thinking mode can also promote the progress of technology. We should not choose only one of the two to design, but should find a way to balance the two in practice.