Designerly Well-being: Implications for pedagogy that develops design capability

Abstract

This article presents the concept of "designerly wellbeing",
identifying the value for individuals and society of
the development of the design capability inherent in all
humans. The concept builds on ideas more generally of
capability, well-being and democratic design and is
characterised as the satisfaction, pride, confidence and
competence of being able to engage in designerly thought
and action with criticality and capability. (Stables, 2012)
This article explores pedagogic issues, particularly in
relation to the development of an individual's
understanding of themselves as a designer, how they
engage effectively in the processes of designing and how
they develop the confidence and confidence to positively
exploit their own designerly capability in their personal life,
social and community life or professional life. Key to this
is the stance of the educator on the processes of
designing. The paper will present research that make the
case for an iterative, dynamic view of process, responsive
to the changing demands within any design or design
related task. This research illustrates the importance of
recognising the preferred approaches to design activity of
individuals and the importance of supporting individual
preferences whilst building new strengths to establish a
repertoire of design methods, processes, knowledge and
skills. An initial exploration of designerly well-being is
presented through a small-scale pilot study that enabled
14 year olds to work in groups to take on big design
challenges and prototype ideas. The pilot study indicated
the positive effects on both the learners and the learning
that took place as well as providing insights into the
challenges for the teachers. It also indicated the need for
further research.