Academic articles every designer should read

Let’s tear down the ivory tower and actually put academia’s findings into practice

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Designers face complex and multifaceted problems, blending creative problem solving, psychology, technology, and business to develop new solutions to difficult problems. Challenges run the gamut, from proving the economic value of Design to making complex technology accessible to fostering and sustaining creativity.

While many of us predominately learn through exposure in the field, reviewing relevant academic research and drawing upon their findings as well can prove fruitful.

Defining the value of Design

Creating Economic Value by Design by John Heskett in International Journal of Design.

What is the article about?

This paper examines how major economic theories influence how we define the value of design. Heskett argues that economics doesn’t acknowledge design, and “if designers cannot argue the economic relevance of their practice in convincing terms…they will remain what the American designer, George Nelson, long ago termed ‘exotic menials’.”

Heskett reviews the shortcomings of dominant economic theory, Neo-Classicism, and how it overlooks and discounts design, and then he explores alternative economic systems that are more cognizant of design. By exploring various economic theories, Designers can analyze business activity, learn what business managers care about, and more effectively communicate the value of their work.

Key points

• Neo-Classical theory is the dominant theory in the Western world, focusing on markets and zeroing in on supply and demand. However, it characterizes markets as static, uses price to determine value while ignoring quality and differentiation, and it disregards how goods and services are formulated, designed, developed, and ultimately used.
• The Austrian school of economics, alternatively, focuses on how value is attributed to products. Carl Menger, the founder of the school, argues “Value is thus nothing inherent in goods, no property of them, nor an independent thing existing by itself. It is a judgment…