I am interested in exploring how designers might actually be able to improve people’s lives. Traditionally, this “improvement” has been measured by the ways in which a product or system makes things “easier” (less time, less effort, less thinking) for the user. My thinking is that this kind of design is disempowering to humanity. Further, I believe that what we create ends up creating us, and if we keep creating “simple” designs, we are going to become “simpler” people.
With that in mind, I would like to research a company that embraces our fabulous complexity and facilitates complex design and/or interdisciplinarity and/or holism. I would hope there are design researchers out there who are working to help with the design of products and services that do not patronize users, but instead help users be creatively engaged in the world.
I have no idea where to find such a company (does one even exist?), but I imagine my idea will morph slightly when I find a company to research. Possible questions I hope to answer in my essay are:
• How effectively does this company facilitate creative engagement by users?
• How does this company’s fieldwork inform the design of complex systems?
• How does the company’s “mission” influence or inform their fieldwork?
• How does this company’s “mission” fit into a larger historical design trajectory?
Good conversation
6 years ago
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