Disciplines are founded on principium. These are the necessary truths that allow the existence of a discipline. The principium cognoscendi is the ground for the knowledge of a discipline. While it is pretentious to write about principia essendi and cognoscendi, I always feel more comfortable going back to philosophical foundations. Even though principium cognoscendi ties more closely to epistemology than articulating what interdisciplinary actually means in design, it is fun to include these Latin terms because it reminds me of James Joyce’s irritating inclusion of Gaelic in his English writings. This snobbish behavior seemed almost mean to a non-Gaelic speaking person like me. I hold my grudges a long time. So I am joining Joyce’s disenfranchisement parade by using geeky philosophical terms in italics. Perhaps I should write these off putting terms in bold Edwardian script?
In any event, design is interdisciplinary to the extreme. We are working with art, engineering, math, sociology, psychology etc. Designers are not expert at all of these fields. In fact, we are probably weak in some of them. We may be bad at drawing, hate math, or fearful of science.
It is helpful to identify weaknesses and address them through either: 1) technology, 2) techniques or 3) talent (people). For example poor drawing skills can be improved by graphics and rendering software. Techniques such as ethnography can improve empathy and subsequent user centric design. Most importantly, key people can fill voids in abilities such as engineering or psychology. I will elaborate on these in my next post.
The problem with identifying your weaknesses is that you may wear them as a self imposed and enduring tag. It is sad to live your career saying, “I am and always will be bad at math so when I see numbers I run.” Don’t be that guy.
BTW, ignore the first paragraph. This is why I'm not a journalist. Only a brave few will have gotten to this line...
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