Industrial Design Insight

Seeing Technology in the Widest Sense

Barry Wylant, B.E.S., M.E.Des., Assistant Professor Industrial Design Program
Faculty of Environmental Design, The University of Calgary

Introduction

During the 2003 NEC, a large general-session discussion addressed many topics of importance
in industrial design education. Contributors to that discussion raised salient insights into what is
and should be a part of industrial design education. Indeed, a certain polarity arose within the
discussion as to whether the emphasis in design education should be more on theory (as
represented by areas such as universal design, sustainable design, ergonomics, and so forth) or
more traditional design skills. From the discussion that took place, the breadth of knowledge and
skill required of industrial designers appears quite significant at both ends of this polarity and
along its continuum. It is this expansive notion of the knowledge and skill required of industrial
designers that raises the question of an overview, an inquiry into the purpose of industrial design
and the development of our product culture.

Technology is suggested as a departure point for this discussion. The term technology conjures a
variety of meanings, yet at a very basic level, everything that is designed represents a technology
of some sort. It is a general sense of technology, not necessarily low or high tech, not a specific
type of technology, rather, it is an all-inclusive semantic. It is a sense of technology where both
the dumbbell and the supercomputer are easily included under the rubric of its meaning. From
such a generic idea of technology, an exploration into the essence of technology and its
subsequent relationship to the profession of industrial design can be undertaken.

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