Roles in Design

A role is a part that an actor (person or group) plays.

The roles in design refer to actors involved and what each of them needs to do well for the design to be done well.

List of Roles

Designer

Role: Figure out what a great design looks like, how to build, and then oversee the building. Follow professional ethics. Know and follow codes and standards.

Quality in this Role: Ethical Practice. Code and standards are followed. The design is excellent in both form and function. Minimum drawbacks: cost, time, use of resources, conflicts, hassles, pollution, delays, and so on. Maximum levels of auxiliary rewards: satisfaction, connections, learning, and so on.

End User

Role: Uses the design after it has been completed.

Quality in the Role: Communicates to the designer clearly, accurately, and completely what they want and takes ownership of accepting the final design.

Client/Owner

Role: In charge of the design in terms of commissioning it, paying for it, making major decisions, and so on.

Quality in this Role: Communicates to the designer clearly, accurately, and completely what they want and takes ownership of accepting the final design. Little or no scope creep.

Builder

Role: Builds the design.

Quality in this Role: High-quality fabrication. On time. On budget. Continually keeps the designer informed of better ways to do things, progress, problems, and so on.

Repair Person

Role: Fixes the design after it’s been completed. Example: car mechanic.

Quality in this Role: During the design process, communicates to the designer clearly, accurately, and completely how to modify the design so that it is easy to service and repair.

The Public

Role: Lives with the design after it has been completed. For example, if a new office building goes up in a town, this impacts everyone in the sense that it influences the skyline, traffic, pollution, jobs, and so forth.

Quality in this Role: During the design process, communicates to the designer clearly, accurately, and completely how to modify the design so that it maximizes public wellbeing while minimizing drawbacks: pollution, use of resources, visual, …

Ensuring Quality in Roles

Notes

1. As a designer, you are striving to satisfy yourself, the end-user, the client, the owner, the builder, the repair person, and the general public. This is a balancing act in which you make tradeoffs to get to the best overall design in a holistic sense.

2. As a designer, you have to make sure that others play their roles well because most people have not had the training to do so. Most of the time, this involves building relationships and lots of active listening so that you can ferret out the needs and wants of the various stakeholders.

3. Stakeholder: A stakeholder is any person who is impacted by a design during any part of the design cycle.

4. A design role is played by an actor (person or group). For example, a builder can be a team of ten professionals. Or, a builder can be one person. Also, the same actor can play multiple roles. For example: if I build a dog house for my dog, I am the owner, client, designer, builder, and repairer.

How to Ensure Quality in Roles

1. Figure out what roles are relevant to your design task.
2. Figure out what quality looks like for this role.
3. Ensure quality. Here are some ways how.
   1. Use social skills, especially active listening to figure out what others want.
   2. Use contracts to ensure that accountability is present.
   3. Become knowledgeable so that you can recognize quality.
   4. Ask for feedback (often) and listen to it.
   5. Prioritize to determine whose needs and wants matter the most.