What to Learn

BEGINNING A DESIGN PROJECT is a lot like taking on a new assignment as
a spy. You can prep as the assignment begins, learning something about the
language and culture of the group you’ll be working with, for example, but
there are still a lot of issues to resolve as you get into the action and start to
make the many design decisions required.
Some of those decisions are consistent from project to project, although
the particulars of the answers may vary. The need to consider comfort and
control is important for any project, for example, which we will discuss further
in a few pages. In addition, every ethnic group has traditional ways of residing
with its family, although the particular rules involved aren’t always the same.
On specific projects, one of those general concerns might assume more weight
as design decisions are made. Organizational culture can make one design
choice more likely because respecting it is most likely to add the highest value
to the group, or the determining issue might be a task that space users need
to accomplish well, or some entirely different factor. Sometimes, you might
decide that project-specific conditions (e.g., local customs such as public separation
of the genders) will be ignored, but each time you don’t recognize and
respond to important information, you run the risk of creating a space that
doesn’t meet user needs.
Each design project, like any country you might be spying on, has a past,
a present, and a future—all of which are tightly bound together and which
you must reflect through design decisions. You need to learn about the client
and the social, cultural, economic, market, and technological contexts
in which the place you are developing will be located—after all, you are a
well-intentioned spy.