Julie, I applaud your decision and I think the “Crit” section is a good start in trying to get people to think about design in a more complex way.
In my experience, one of the problems with writing about design is that it falls so easily into that catch-all category called “lifestyle,” which tends to be presented in the most superficial ways, in order to generate glamour. There’s a difference, of course, between writing critically about movies and writing critically about design–or fashion, for that matter–in that a film is an experience, and the readers compare theirs to the one that the critic describes. Whereas when we write about design, we’re discussing material choices that people have made, which in a consumer society are aggrandized as a means of self-expression. It’s one thing to disagree with a critic’s opinion of “Lost in Translation.” It’s another to read that your backpack or sofa or flatware is derivative or that it conveys a message that you never intended to send. Both design and fashion are more loaded, I think, because they hit people where they live.