Design Is the Problem: The Future of Design Must be Sustainable [Color] [Paperback]

Nathan Shedroff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2009

Product design can have a tremendous impact on the world in terms of usability, waste, and resources. In Design Is the Problem, Nathan Shedroff examines how the endemic culture of design often creates unsustainable solutions, and shows how to ensure that design processes lead to more sustainable products and services.

TESTIMONIALS

"If a sustainable world is to be less about stuff, and more about people, what should designers design? Nathan Shedroff challenges designers to focus on what the experience of a sustainable world can be like. I hope every designer will read this book: they ll be inspired to learn that even as they stop creating stuff, there s still a lot of work for them to do."
John Thackara, creator of the Door of Perception conference, author of In The Bubble

"Nathan Shedroff has demonstrated a new discipline as a design deviant. He deviates from the norm of cause (perceived need) and effect (delightful fetish) to question whether we can design to fulfill experiences or true needs by crafting not what is simply less, but something different. This is an opening volley for the next new economy."
Ric Grefe, Executive Director, AIGA

"Design is the Problem illustrates that, when done intentionally and thoughtfully, design can be the solution to our most pressing social and environmental challenges. The book is a comprehensive primer for anyone interested in redesigning not just products, but the way we do business, the way we address problems, and the way we envision and forge our future."
Simran Preeti Sethi, co-host/writer of Sundance Channel s "The Green" and contributing author to Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy

Editorial Reviews

Review

For those who are currently responsible for planning, researching, and crafting tangible products or services, this book will prove as an invaluable desk reference on how to incorporate systems thinking and considerations of sustainability into their project's business processes. --The Designer's Review of Books

The book is rounded out with real world examples that are sprinkled throughout, along with specifics about making sustainable processes a measurable reality, and a useful selection of resources. Nathan's accessible writing keeps the book from becoming a dry textbook and his points are well-researched & applicable to people with a wide range of knowledge and interest in sustainability. A truly useful guidebook, this should definitely be in the hands of anyone interested in the impact their work is having on the world. --Another Limited Rebellion

I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to the members of the design community, be they professionals, students, or interested lay people. Moreover, people who have a general interest in sustainability and not so much in design itself, will also find valuable information, ideas, and pointers to resources in the book. Even though the book was intended as an introduction to a complex topic with the focus on promoting sustainability in an organization, it contains many valuable practical tips for designing more sustainable products. --SAP Design Guild

About the Author

Nathan Shedroff is the chair of the ground-breaking MBA in Design Strategy program at California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco. This program melds the unique principles that design offers business strategy with a vision of the future of business as sustainable, meaningful, and truly innovative as well as profitable. Nathan is one of the pioneers in experience design, an approach to design that encompasses multiple senses and requirements and explores common characteristics in all media that make experiences successful and has played an important role in the related fields of interaction design and information design. He is a serial entrepreneur, works in several media, and consults strategically for companies to build better, more meaningful experiences for their customers. Nathan speaks and teaches internationally and has written extensively on design and business issues, including Experience Design 1.1, and Making Meaning, co-written with two members of Cheskin, a Silicon Valley-based strategy consultancy, which explores how companies can specifically create products and services to evoke meaning in their audiences and customers. Nathan is also the editor of the Dictionary of Sustainable Management, a website and now printed book. In addition, he maintains an extensive set of resources on experience design. Nathan earned a BS in Industrial Design, with an emphasis on Automobile Design from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. However, fear of Detroit, coupled with a passion for information design, led Nathan to work with Richard Saul Wurman at TheUnderstandingBusiness. Later, he co-founded vivid studios, a decade-old pioneering company in interactive media and one of the first Web services firms on the planet. vivid s hallmark was helping to establish and validate the field of information architecture by training an entire generation of designers in the newly emerging Web industry. Nathan was nominated for a Chrysler Innovation in Design Award in 1994 and 1999, and a National Design Award in 2001. In 2006, Nathan earned a Masters in Business Administration at Presidio School of Management in San Francisco, the only accredited MBA program in the USA specializing in Sustainable Business.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Rosenfeld Media; 1st edition (March 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933820004
• ISBN-13: 978-1933820002
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #253,284 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Serial Entrepreneur, Experience Designer, Business Strategist

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Eye opening and inspiring! April 22, 2009

By Eric Corey Freed

Format:Paperback

We have designed ourselves into a (proverbial) corner. Shedroff's book masterfully walks through the various aspects of design and provides tangible methods to improve the sustainability, impact and benefits of our designed world.

I thought this book might only cover industrial and product design, but the scope includes so much more. This book will open your eyes to the possibilities of an inevitably sustainable future. A must for any designer.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars SO informative! May 29, 2009

By lara mc

Format:Paperback

ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS BOOK. It goes so much deeper than any other of the books i've read on sustainability and design. I am a professor and sharing this book with students has been a great way to teach them to approach design in a more thoughtful way.

The real-world examples are helpful and the language comprehensive. Am recommending this book to all of my friends!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought-provoking introduction to sustainable design May 28, 2009

By Weston Thompson

Format:Paperback

This book provides designers of all stripes - and other people responsible for bringing products to the market - with a solid introduction to sustainability issues. Shedroff provides enough details to be substantive, but not too many to lose his general audience. As somebody not trained in industrial design, I found this book a fun introduction to many aspects of industrial design. Additionally, Shedroff gives readers a good start in systems thinking.

I do not always enjoy Shedroff's writing style, and I think this book needed better editing, but Shedroff has helped me think in new and broader ways about design decisions.