Design, When Everybody Designs: An Introduction to Design for Social Innovation (Design Thinking, Design Theory)

Una lectura relevante llena de ideas tangibles y a la vez provocativas. Una visión del diseño y la comunidad y sus relaciones

Buena calidad y llegó antes de lo que esperaba

Highly recommend for people whose work entails building and scaling communities in open and social innovations. The concepts he laid out are the exact blueprint I need for my own work right now in community building and engagement for a French non-profit organization. My only qualms are: 1) The examples in boxes indicated throughout the book feel a bit redundant; they are also explained somewhat in the text outside the boxes, so why the need to have separate explanations in the boxes? 2) The details in the examples also feel limited; I would have liked to have seen more examples outside of Europe. I would read this book again less for the case studies, and more for the grand visioning that Mazini sets in this book - which feels both realistic and radical at the same time.

Very interesting

Great book! An fundamental book to understand design aplication beyond products.

First thing first: If there were a “Book of the Year” award in design, I would vote for this one. ‘Design. When Everybody Designs’ is an insightful contemporary account on designing social-technical conditions for initiating and supporting collaborative social changes. However, the work is more a (design) proposal and a call for action than an academic examination on the topic. A more precise sub-title might have been: An Introduction to Manzini’s Vision, Stories and Guidelines of Design for Social Innovation. The delimitation would not only be helpful to orient readers’ expectation and but also acknowledge the fruits of Manzini’s decades of labour, and his intention of writing the book. Manzini aims to offer a specific design point of view written in its own language. “(I)t is a contribution to a specific design culture parallel and complementary to others” (p.5). Once it is clear about what the book is and about, it is easier to understand its slight evangelist tone of voice and the omission of other positions that an “Introduction” normally includes. I will come back to this point later, but first the juice. Manzini masterfully assembles and interprets, in short creatively synthesizes, numerous third-party and own projects, concepts and theories from different disciplines to construct his arguments and positions. The key points are: we (particularly in the post-industrialized world) cannot and must not go on living as we did: individualistic, passive and excessive in consumption. Everyone, as ‘diffuse designer’, ought to participate collaboratively in redefining and creating social, economical and environmental well-being sensible to her own contexts. Expert designers should remake themselves and play the new role of activist, initiator, facilitator or supporter in co-designing for social innovation. There are promising design cases, principles, methods, and tools to be employed and improved, as shown and discussed in the book. Expert and diffuse designers should “make things happen”: experiment, replicate and connect. Together slowly but hopefully a new sustainable and meaningful civilization will be created to replace the current dysfunctional one. On the one hand, I am totally inspired and feel that I can follow this book and start experimenting. On the other hand, I am curious about how Manzini draws the lines when he says: “The book crosses various specialist ambits that mingle together in design practice, seeking to elaborate its own point of view and its own language: in short, its own culture. So, although it touches on different disciplinary fields, it is not an interdisciplinary book; it is a contribution to a specific design culture, parallel and complementary to others. This is a culture to whose growth all other social actors may contribute, but it is the design experts who should be its major producers.” (p.5) What specific design culture does he refer? Surely it is not Politecnico Milano since Manzini is interested in contributing to an international debate. Does his design culture includes Tony Fry in Australia, Cameron Tonkinwise in the USA, or Wolfgang Jonas in Germany; or to step a bit further and backward to “Designing Social Systems in a Changing World” by Bela Banathy who has also advanced the idea of creative participation of ordinary citizens for social change. Was Banathy a design expert writing from a design point of view in a design language? Well, I think, Harold Nelson, for example, would think so. And so would Klaus Krippendorff whose idea of design as sense making (The Semantic Turn) has been taken by Roberto Verganti and to whom Manzini refer. Despite its brilliance, this book, like many other design books, is a stand-alone disconnected from other relevant design discourses. Now, to be fair, the other living design thinkers do not necessarily seek connections to Manzini. The academic design culture is rather individualistic. Perhaps in design, a social innovation in which everybody not only designs, but also reads, examines, corrects and builds on others is needed. Best Regards, Rosan Chow, Germany

Excellent book, not for social innovation, but to explain the power of design to change our relations and the power of human society

This book was assigned to me for my masters program in design. It is incredibly dense, boring, weird use of language, and offers little value to the reader. I don’t know if it’s because it was translated to English from another language or something but the usage and terms are abnormal. There is a lot of conceptual terms with little practical analogies or experiences. It just sounds like a bloviating professor trying to sound smarter than you because they spent more time in the design space rather than talking about how to use co design strategies in simple terms to design great products and services. That’s what I wanted this book to teach me, and it falls short making you second guess what the hell they are talking about. I wish this would have given concrete example of what they are talking about rather than leaving you in abstract darkness. “Don’t make me think” on the other hand is a great design book on visual design. Take some pointers on how to give some practical examples on how write a good book on design. This book should be burned cause that’s it’s only practical application—providing warmth. I can’t believe I had to read this whole book for my masters program. Time and money wasted.

Um dos livros que mais gostei porque ele propõe, com muita propriedade do Mestre Ezio, olhar o potencial da mentalidade do design em vários outras situações. É um livro que mostra e reforça o mindset de design para a vida. Recomendo muito

Arrived on time, no problems.

Letto subito in coda al libro scritto da Carlo Ratti (Open Architecture), trovo che rappresenti una conferma ed una validissima testimonianza sul futuro della professione di "progettista" in senso lato (sia progettista di oggetti, sia progettista di spazi più o meno grandi). Un libro necessario e prezioso che chi è del mestiere dovrebbe leggere. (Così come dovrebbe essere letto anche da chi non è del mestiere per capire meglio.) Utile per trovare un punto di contatto ed un terreno di dialogo tra la progettazione che parte dall'alto (e che fatica a calarsi nella realtà odierna, restando - in taluni casi - arroccata sulle sue posizioni) e quella che nasce dal basso (specchio delle reali necessità e fonte di riflessioni). Consigliato. (NOTA: il libro è in inglese, ma è comprensibile e privo di tecnicismi accademici che lo potrebbero rendere un po' "astruso")

Good book. It arrived as expected.

Uma visão contemporânea sobre o design e os desafios em um mundo em constante transformação. Muito boa leitura e a entrega da Amazon foi muito eficiente.