It is entirely possible that Hugh Dubberly is one of the very few people in the design community who quotes easily and unself-consciously from Plato’s Dialogues. As the former vice president of Netscape’s Web Design and Site Integration Department and the recent co-founder of his own eponymous design consulting firm, Dubberly—like favorite Greek philosopher—is a professional shiner of light into the murk and ambiguity of life. “My central concern,” he says, “is to figure out how design can be employed make complex ideas visible and understandable so that we can make better products.” With impeccable design and digital pedigrees, Dubberly has been on the cusp of what’s next since the Internet’s earliest days. So it’s worthwhile paying attention to his present thoughts on what’s next for the business of design—and the design of business.
Like iron filings arrayed around a magnet, Dubberly’s thoughts are organized around two poles. The first is that design and designers are now utterly central to big, important and fast-growing companies. The second is that designers now have an opportunity and responsibility that meld into and perhaps even herald a new field of practice.
