Designing for wellbeing

Elements of design for wellbeing
After a year’s work, we should be in a position to define design for wellbeing,
but unfortunately a definition is neither easy to find nor self-evident.
In this case, as in many others, going deeper reveals more questions than
answers.
Addressing wellbeing through design means that the narrow disciplinary
conception of design being about making objects beautiful is no
longer enough; it must be replaced with a more inclusive understanding.
When we design for wellbeing we pay attention to improving intangible
objects such as digital interfaces, internet and face-to-face services and
urban development. We must also design critically, underlining topics
that require further discussion. Traditional three-dimensional and graphic
design obviously have a place in this more inclusive definition of design
too. Design for wellbeing requires that design is seen as a broad umbrella
of activities that identify issues in systems and find technical solutions and
practices that can and should be improved for the betterment of human
life. It can also point the way towards better solutions. Accepting a broad
definition of design like this has consequences, the most obvious being
that the disciplinary borders within design need to be crossed and that
design requires and includes a lot of work not often identified as design.
However, to be able to understand the broadening concept of design as a
unique activity that is different from any other type of planning, something
needs to be said about its specific nature.
Design, and indeed design for wellbeing, is an integrative and fundamentally
cross-disciplinary practice that operates in a complex environment
of different and in many cases conflicting values, methods, occupational
roles and responsibilities, historical legacies both positive and negative, and
societal forums and practices. To understand design, it needs to be seen as a
practice that encompasses art, craft, innovation and research. First, design
inherits the artistic aspirations of creating aesthetical experiences, it relies
on individual creativity and subscribes to the practice of exhibiting results
9 · Design, wellbeing and design for wellbeing