As we shortly approach the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina I was reminded of an article the New York Times had that I felt was a largely superficial post back in September of 2005 entitled Can Design Prepare Us For Disaster?
This article could be used as a case study for why people are dismissive of designers, with its superficial and product focused solutions to crisis planning that focus more on styling than solving design problems. While not to denigrate the work of the artists featured it demonstrated how design journalism in general still seems to worship and focus on some of the more basic of our endeavors.
The opportunity for a deep analysis of where the value of design thinking should live is crisis and disaster planning is lost with a focus rooted in solving product design issues versus systems issues. Less sexy but certainly a more valuable venue in which design can play.
(Note, the linked article has since been archived, you'll need to be a Times Select Member to access it.)
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