• In an interconnected world, what are the limitations of design when cultural, political, economic biological and environmental systems are increasingly open? 

Based on the reading, the limitations of design have to do with the ability of the designer to communicate an increasing amount of information with meanings on an increasing number of levels while avoiding unnecessary aspects of personal style which may obscure the message(s). Designers will have to determine the amount of information that is necessary to establish meaning, while minding the reader's willingness (or lack of) to make any special attempts to decipher meaning.

• Does new media present the “new” direction for design?  Describe how new media does or does not present “new “ directions in design and provide an examples (links or screen grabs) to support your assertion.

I think new media definitely presents a new direction for design. In a discussion between Bruce Nussbaum and Industrial Designers Society of America executive director Frank Tyneski, they talk about how "everything" is converging on "variations of a rectangle", meaning screen based media. Tyneski talks about how designers now attempt to affect the users' experiences on deeper and more meaningful levels than ever before. They discuss the recent evolution of design education, which is producing designers who devote far more time to researching and problem solving their client's unique position.

http://feedroom.businessweek.com/index.jsp?fr_story=cf5ca714c35c3d963987713f02116b283610d593

• Is it time for designers to reintegrate disparate fields in order to consider new directions in design?  Give examples (with links or screen grabs) of some new ways that design might be considered.  These do not have to be existing ways, just ways that might yield some new and interesting results.

I think design should and to an extent already has begun to appropriate from different forms, media, styles, etc. Post-modern art and design borrow heavily from countless other disciplines, adding and changing the meaning of the referenced works. The ability of the reader/decipherer of the message to recognize these references serves as a sort of intellectual reward for the viewer.

• What is the next “big thing in design”?  Why do you think so and based on what criteria? Provide examples to support your assertion.

I don't know what the next big thing in design is, i'm not psychic. I think technology is developing at an unprecedented rate and the future of design and technology are somewhat interconnected. An example is nanotechnology. The link below discusses how "nanotechnology “is likely to change the way almost everything - from vaccines to computers to automobile tires to objects not yet imagined - is designed and made." For now I believe the future is screen based media and the designer's ability to communicate visual messages "in the briefest, simplest, most urgent form."

http://www.nsti.org/Nanotech2006/showabstract.html?absno=1094