‘Design-Society’ Cycle: A Case Study on the Story of Longitude

Abstract

The motive of design should be expanded beyond its current focus on the design process, and should include understanding and possibly improvement of preand post-design activities. This chapter undertakes a preliminary enquiry into the broad processes that might constitute design, pre-design and post-design phases, and proposes the ‘design-society’ cycle as a framework for further enquiry into these processes, to understand their influence on: developing knowledge and experience triggered in the societal mind by a product, subsequent transformation of this knowledge and experience to form new product requirements, and further transformation of this knowledge and requirements to form new products. Experience of individuals and valuation of experience are seen as keys to the development of this knowledge, with the background of the individual, in particular her myriad identities, as a major influence in forming this experience. Using ‘the story of longitude’ as a case study, the chapter deconstructs the design-society cycle to propose a number of key questions that could form an agenda for further enquiry into the Cycle.