When designing projects, it’s very important for the designer to ask questions about what it’s being developed and why make sure the outcome is as acurate as possible with the project needs. That is the base of any project. It’s also important though to consider the impact of your designs in society and make sure, as designers, we are offering the best solution available.

I would like to thank Kara Pecknold for sharing this list of questions in one of her blog posts in Design 21.

Each project have it’s own uniqueness and requirement, therefore the questions may also vary. However, I think it would be fair to say that going through these question would probably just be a good start for any design project.

78 Reasonable Questions to Ask about Any Design
by Stephanie Mills

Ecological

What are its effects on the health of the planet and of the person?
Does it preserve or destroy biodiversity?
Does it preserve or reduce ecosystem integrity?
What are its effects on the land?
What are its effects on wildlife?
How much and what kind of waste does it generate?
Does it incorporate the principles of ecological design?
Does it break the bond of renewal between humans and nature?
Does it preserve or reduce cultural biodiversity?
What is the totality of its effects – it’s “ecology”?

Social

Does it serve community?
Does it empower community members?
How does it affect our perception of our needs?
Is it consistent with the creation of a communal, human economy?
What are its effects on relationships?
Does it undermine conviviality?
Does it undermine traditional forms of community?
How does it affect our way of scene and experiencing the world?
Does it foster a diversity of forms of knowledge?
Does it build on, or contribute to, the renewal of traditional forms of knowledge?
Does it serve to commodify knowledge or relationships?
To what extent does it redefine reality?
Does it to raise a sense of time and history?
What is its potential to become addictive?

Moral

What values does its use foster?
What is gained by its use?
What are its effects beyond its ability to the individual?
What is lost in using it?
What are its effects on the least person in the society?

Aesthetic

Is it ugly?
Does cause ugliness?
What noise does it make?
What pace does it set?
How does it affect quality of life (as distinct from standard of living)?

Practical

What does it make?
Who does it benefit?
What is its purpose?
Where was produced?
Where is it used?
Where must go when it’s broken or obsolete?
How expensive is it?
Can it be repaired? By an ordinary person?
What is the entirety of its cost-the full cost accounting?

Ethical

How complicated is it?
What does it allow us to ignore?
To what extent does it distance agents from effect?
Can we assume personal, or communal, responsibility for its effects?
Can its effects be directly apprehended?
What ancillary technologies does it require?
What behavior might it make possible in the future?
What other technologies might it make possible?
Does it alter our sense of time and relationships in ways conducive to nihilism?

Vocational

What is its impact on craft?
Does it reduce, deaden, or enhance human creativity?
Is it the least imposing technology available for the task?
Does it replace, or does it aid, human hands and human beings?
Can it be responsive to organic circumstance?
Does it depress or enhance the quality of goods?
Does it depress or enhance the meaning of work?

Political

What is its mystique?
Does it concentrate or equalize power?
Does it require, or institute, a knowledge elite?
Is it totalitarian?
Does it require a bureaucracy for its perpetuation?
What legal empowerments does it require?
Does it undermine traditional moral authority?
Does it require military defense?
Does it enhance, or serve, military purposes?
How does it affect warfare?
Does it foster a mass thinking or behavior?
Is it consistent with the creation of global economy?
Does it empower transnational corporations?
What kind of capital does it require?

Metaphysical

What aspect of the inner self does it reflect?
Does it express love?
Does it express rage?
What aspect of our past does it reflect?
Does it reflect cynical or linear thinking?