Imagining the Future of Design and Collaboration

Imagining the Future of Design and Collaboration

New technologies are getting adopted faster and faster.

In the modern business environment, it no longer takes multiple decades for new ideas to take root. Instead, thanks to increased connectivity, instantaneous communication, and big leaps in computing power, these new innovations can rise to prominence in much shorter time spans.

As these changes surface, companies can either help pioneer these new technologies – or they can be caught off guard by their impact on industry.

A Fundamental Shift

Today’s infographic comes to us from Schneider Electric, and it dives into the many technological forces that will be re-shaping the future of design and collaboration.

It touches on an exciting but uncertain future for industrial designers, architects, engineers, and other design-oriented industries, in which rising processing power and new technologies are re-wiring the fundamental relationship between the designer and the end product.

Almost certainly, these forces will shape a competitive landscape for the design industry that will seem almost completely unfamiliar over the next decade or so.

The Computational Era

Computer-aided design (CAD) has already revolutionized design, but it turns out that CAD only scratches the surface of what is possible with computers.

The rapid increase in processing power, the miniaturization of devices, new algorithms, and increased connectivity are leading to a new era of computational design.

Instead of designers using computers as a tool, computers are now able to generate insights, make creative leaps, and jump to decisions using massive data sets – and this will fundamentally change the designer’s role in the creative process.

In the future, designers will be more like mentors for computers by providing their guidance and experience.

The Forces Shaping Design

What do we mean when we say “computational design”?

Infinite computing
Tapping into cloud-based computing power to try thousands of design permutations.

Big data & predictive analytics
Using billions of data points and predictive analytics to create new or highly customized products.

Generative design
Computers mimic nature’s evolutionary approach to design.

AI / Machine learning
Designing a system that learns and adapts over time.

The Forces Shaping Collaboration

But how design is changing doesn’t stop there – how we collaborate on design is also undergoing a revolution:

AR/VR
Virtual collaboration can be achieved across the globe, allowing designers to work in parallel.

Cloud-based collaboration
Design is no longer siloed and can be democratized between different stakeholders. Further, teams can work simultaneously from all over the world.

Crowdsourcing
Input for design and specialized parts can be crowdsourced.

3d and 4d printing
Design and manufacturing can be integrated seamlessly, even to customize individual items. 4d printing is a new frontier where printed objects adapt to various circumstances.

An Uncertain Future

Data, computing power, and new tools are enabling a rapid transition in how we design and collaborate.

No one can be certain about how different the future of design and collaboration will be, or how it will affect business models – but for companies to remain relevant and competitive over the coming years, they will need to be watching this technological revolution very closely.