Reflection on 4 fields of design by Tharp and Tharp (Week 2)

There are four fields of design, which are commercial design, experimental design, responsible design and discursive design. Commercial design - It is the industrial or product design and comprises the overwhelming majority of our professional activity. This is design work oriented toward and driven by, the market. It is is to create useful, use-able and desirable products that customers can afford and that generate adequate profit. Experimental design - It represents a fairly narrow swath within the broad field of design and its primary intention is exploration, experimentation and discovery. Experimental Design is defined perhaps more by its process than its outcome. Responsible design - It is known as socially responsible design and driven by a more humanitarian notion of service. Designer works to provide a useful, use-able and desirable product to those who are largely ignored by the market. Discursive design - It refers to the creation of utilitarian objects whose primary purpose is to communicate the ideas -- they encourage discourse. They raise awareness and perhaps understanding of substantive and often debatable issues of psychological, sociological and ideological consequence.