In that way that blogs have of being a depositry for half-formed and untested ideas, this concept is offered up for ridicule:
As someone who spends 37% of their waking life thinking up schemes to traverse the design value chain, I’ve been wondering about the concept of dimensions to design. A conversation with an architect friend got this going, as they felt they designed in 4 dimensions – the 3 normal ones of any 3D object, plus time as the fourth. So in that sense product designers might also design in four dimensions, and if not, then at least three. The perception is that visual communicators of old design in 2 dimensions, and in many ways this is true, designing the image, rather than the thing, and imbuing it with a transient throwaway quality (so not much in terms of a time factor). Visual communicators of new probably span the 3 dimensions already mentioned, plus with (amongst others) screen and web based work, start entering the fourth. To build on this premise, the 5th dimension I allude to is of course the human, the user, and the question to be asked is whether placing this 5th dimension at the heart of design projects, we’re further adding to the value (not necessarily monetary) of that project? Is this the 5th dimension of design, and are designers focusing on service, experience and interaction at the most complex, but most valuable end of the spectrum of design?