Design as a Facilitator-Thinking of designer´s role and skills as facilitator in the complex context

In today´s social context, the role of designers has been shifting gradually with design evolution. Along with the proposition of design thinking, service design and transformation design, designers work more with people than merely for people. And that makes designers play the role of facilitators more in the design processes to promote co-design with various stakeholders for solutions and strategies of complex issues. Nevertheless, it does not mean that designers´ original skills are not as important as before. Design approaches and knowledge should be better mixed into facilitation. And the role of designer and facilitator needs to be appropriately balanced for achieving optimal results. Based on the author´s one-year Master learning experience of Design for Services in UK, this article mainly discusses the significance of design as a facilitator in the complex social context, what kinds of design approaches and skills are required to play a better facilitator role, and in the broader context how designers´ facilitation influences further social development.