Designing the Future: Redefining The Role of the Designer
- Karla Despradel
- Apr 22
- 5 min read
The Privilege of Making & Reflecting on the Maker
My foundation in design began at Chavón, expanded at Parsons School of Design, and deepened through my MFA in Design for Social Innovation at the School of Visual Arts. I'm deeply appreciative for these institutions, they didn’t just teach me how to make, they taught me how to think. Today, I find myself at a privileged point in my career where design is not only about crafting what’s next, but also about understanding who is behind it. Beyond making things, I’m thinking about the systems, values, and intentions of the maker. This reflection grounds my belief that the future of design lies not just in innovation, but in responsibility. A few groups might benefit from this article, but if I'm honest, its for the makers.
Designers of the Past
Design has been integral to human progress since the earliest civilizations. From crafting stone tools and controlling fire to developing systems like agriculture and symbolic language, early design shaped the foundation of society. Designers of the past didn’t just solve immediate problems; they paved the way for the future by innovating for survival and societal growth. Throughout history, designers have continually adapted to meet the needs of their time.
Designers of Today
As societies have grown more complex and diverse, so too has the role of the designer. Fifteen years ago, the design landscape was narrower, with more generalist roles like "graphic designer" or "product designer" covering a broad range of disciplines. However, with rapid technological advancement and increasingly diverse human needs, the demand for specialized design roles has grown exponentially.
A quick search on LinkedIn reveals titles that didn’t exist two decades ago—roles like Behavior Designer and Innovation Designer. Behavior Designers use insights from psychology and social sciences to shape user behavior, while Innovation Designers develop groundbreaking solutions to address emerging challenges.
This specialization reflects the increasing complexity of design challenges. For instance, designers now tackle problems that span multiple domains, from creating accessible interfaces for diverse audiences to solving environmental issues through sustainable products. To prepare for the future, designers must cultivate universal attributes that transcend individual roles.
Designers of the Future
As the design landscape continues to evolve, certain principles will remain essential for success. Future designers must embody empathy, inclusivity, sustainability, leadership, and purpose-driven innovation. Here are these core principles with examples illustrating their application:
Empathy as the Foundation: Human-Centered & Behavioral Design
Empathy is the foundation of impactful design. By understanding users' needs, desires, and behaviors, designers can create solutions that genuinely improve lives. Behavioral design, which uses psychological principles to shape user actions.
The Children’s Hospital Colorado uses virtual reality (VR) to ease pain and anxiety during procedures. Tools like the Gurney Journey game immerse children in calming virtual environments. Abe Staffa, Director of Innovation, emphasizes their patient-centered approach, stating, “We always try to include patients very early on in our process,” ensuring solutions that prioritize both care and engagement.
Hospitals are an obvious fit for human-centered design. At Mount Sinai, I worked on reimagining primary care by engaging patients and providers to understand their experiences and challenges. This foundational work emphasized the power of empathy in creating more effective, inclusive, and impactful healthcare solutions.
Leave No One Behind: Inclusivity and Accessibility
As societies become more diverse, inclusivity and accessibility are non-negotiable in design. Products and systems must serve all users, regardless of age, ability, or background.
The UNICEF Wearables for Good Challenge is a prime example. They developed affordable, wearable tech to track infant immunizations in underserved regions, this initiative ensures life-saving healthcare reaches even the most vulnerable.
Design With & For Nature: Bio-Inspired & Regenerative Solutions
Addressing climate change requires designers to prioritize sustainability. Bio-inspired and regenerative design principles offer solutions that minimize environmental impact and promote renewal.
Painless Needles. Inspired by how mosquitoes bite, researchers created special needles to make shots less painful. These needles copy the mosquito’s tiny, saw-like edges and flexible way of moving, so they don’t bother nerves as much when they go into the skin. The innovation reduces discomfort by integrating vibration and precise design, inspired by nature’s engineering. This bio-inspired approach exemplifies how studying natural mechanisms can lead to breakthroughs in medical technology, improving patient experiences.
Design Forward Leadership: Multidisciplinary Co-creation
Future designers will lead teams across diverse fields to tackle interconnected challenges. This requires fostering collaboration, democratizing design processes, and facilitating co-creation.
Hermès has been applying this principle since 1837. Artisans meticulously craft each piece by hand, preserving techniques passed down through generations. Designers collaborate closely with them to innovate while respecting tradition, and engineers refine processes to enhance durability and usability. This synergy has led to iconic creations time and time again.
Recently, our consultant Nashira Arnó was selected to participate in Hermès’ American Craft Convening, where she collaborated with directors from the French luxury house to refine her approach and gain firsthand experience in Hermès’ best practices for designer–artisan collaboration. This experience has further fueled our conversations on how to bridge culture, craftsmanship, and circular economy principles across Latin America.
Designing for Collective Wellbeing: From the Personal to the Collective
The interconnected nature of global challenges demands that design solutions prioritize collective well-being alongside individual needs.
Gehl Architects is an urban design consultancy that emphasizes designing for collective well-being by focusing on the interplay between public spaces and social interaction. Their project, New Road Streetscape Design in Brighton, UK, exemplifies this principle. By transforming a previously vehicle-dominated street into a shared space prioritizing pedestrians and cyclists, they enhanced social interactions and revitalized the local economy, illustrating how thoughtful urban design can elevate both individual and collective well-being.
Purpose-Driven Design: Justifying a Reason to Exist
In an era of heightened awareness about social and environmental issues, purpose-driven design ensures that every product or service contributes positively to society.
Patagonia’s Worn Wear Program exemplifies this, promoting sustainable consumption through the repair and resale of outdoor gear. By extending product lifecycles and educating consumers, Patagonia aligns its business with broader environmental goals.
The future of design extends far beyond aesthetics and even functionality—it demands a holistic approach grounded in empathy, inclusivity, sustainability, and purpose-driven innovation. Designers must lead with compassion, embrace diverse needs, and create solutions that respect both humanity and the planet.
Human-Led Technology: Designing with Intention in the Age of AI
Technology has always reshaped how we design, think about the printing press to digital platforms, and now artificial intelligence. Each wave brings both opportunities and challenges. AI can generate ideas, streamline workflows, and personalize experiences like never before. But as these tools become more powerful, the role of the designer becomes even more vital.
Because being human will always be on trend, in style & fundamental to design.
Being human will always matter.
Design is more than efficiency and automatization, it’s about meaning, ethics, and emotion. It requires care, context, and cultural understanding. These are not just qualities to preserve, they are the foundation for designing tools, products, systems, and spaces that genuinely serve people.
The future of design is about ensuring that our humanity leads the way. As designers, we have the responsibility to guide technology with intention embedding empathy, integrity, and purpose into every solution we bring to life.
This means designing not just for what’s possible, but for what’s right.
At HumanXDesign, we use these principals daily with our clients to shape a better future by improving lives, fostering well-being, and addressing global challenges through human-centered design. Join us to create sustainable, inclusive solutions that inspire and transform.
