Blur testing

Google shares the design ideas behind Google maps. For example they used a blur test...

Slow design and slow technology

What is slow design?

http://www.mashpedia.com/Sustainable_design

"Slow design outcomes encourage a reduction in economic, industrial and urban metabolisms, and hence consumption, by: serving basic human needs; designing for space to think, react, dream, and muse; designing for people first, commercialization second; balancing the local with the global and the social with the environmental; demystifying and democratizing design by re-awakening individual’s own design potential; and catalyzing social transformation towards a less materialistic way of living (Fuad-Luke p. 19)"

Sandberg (2011) describes the theory of slow theory and how for example the compass table and other objects created by Dunne and Raby represent slow design "Placebo objects" in her Decelerated design, Master of Arts thesis at University of Iowa. 

Slow design is related to emotionally durable design. I'm looking forward to Chapmans new book :  Chapman argues that the process of consumption is, and has always been, motivated by complex emotional drivers. This is about far more than just the mindless purchasing of new things. Instead it is a journey towards the ideal or desired self, that through cyclical loops of desire and disappointment, which becomes serial destruction.

Related to this is also:

slow technology. (Hallnäs and Redström, 2001)

slow consumption.
slow interaction. 

Some references:

Chapman, Jonathan. "Design for (Emotional) Durability."

Design Issues

25, no. 4 (2009): 29-35.

Chapman, J., Meaningful Stuff: Design, Ecology & the Human Condition, Routledge, London (forthcoming, 2014)

Fuad-Luke, Alastair. "Slow Theory: A Paradigm for Living Sustainably?" Slowdesign.org.

Accessed May 18, 2011. http://www.slowdesign.org/slowtheory.html.

Strauss, Carolyn, and Alastair Fuad-Luke. "The Slow Design Principles." Slowlab.net. 2008.

http://www.slowlab.net/CtC_SlowDesignPrinciples.pdf.

Papenek, V. Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change. New York: Pantheon Press

Lars Hallnäs and Johan Redström. 2001. Slow Technology – Designing for Reflection. Personal Ubiquitous Comput. 5, 3 (January 2001), 201-212.

Sandberg, Abigail Jane. Decelerated design. Diss. The University of Iowa, 2011.

Crafting the future

Some snapshots from the conference:

Otto Von Busch talk: Inspirational with lots of visions and political perspectives "Every grain of soil contains imperialism".  Connecting craft and design, sketching and production. Today this is separated but we need to be seen as two levels.

Otto gave perspectives of sloyd and DIY movements. Today everyone can contribute and produce things (crowdsourcing, 3d printers etc), but how do we create a system where people are actually paid for their contribution? How can we connect practices?And how can the craft practice contribute to and manifest social self-reflection? Also we need to connect practices. I totally agree.

Otto described Friedrich Frödel: " We best understand what we can produce". In this we also need to consider values and power. Producing things "because we can" is not sustainable. What do we ground our design in, how does it affect society and nature?

 

A child playing in a playground made by willow craft (pil in swedish) at Vasaparken in Gothenburg (Arranged by Helena Hansson, HDK). Why are all playgrounds currently being built in plastics? Where is the sand, the leaves, and the threes? What relation to nature do we give our children by removing natural materials from their daily play? Are plastics really more safe? Maybe from physical injury? But this is based on our current understanding, from what we see, what we know, and what we build. 

Maybe we need to reflect more on what we build and why? Maybe we can learn something from craftsmen? Something about social innovation and sustainable perspectives of materials?

Visualization of design-oriented research.

Interesting perspectives of design research!
Visualizing research in design.

Written for Interactions magazine by Liz Sanders. Edited by Hugh Dubberly

Reflection in action

Is a good design process a reflective practice? Reflection in action is not only what design practioners and others do in a design process (Schön, The Reflective Practitioner). Csikszentmihalyi and Halton (1981) describe "the self in the context of cultivation", a process of interpretation and self-control motivated by goals. This is a "self-corrective process". Thus, a similar approach to reflection-in-action is already happening in everyday activities (ibid). Thus, this not necessarily unique for a work situation, only applied in a different context and more articulated? ...

Some work practices are very dependent on practice-based knowledge, such as in healtcare. Staff may face very different situations. Here reflection, as well as critical thinking, may support people to handle these and also become more skilfull in what they do (Price, 2003) .

I find it very interesting to understand what it is that we are refelcting on in a design process and why.... Designers are trained to "questions the question" but how is it for other professionals and others that are engaged in design processes? How can we make the most of different skills and experiences in a reflective design process?


To be continued...

Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Halton, E. (1981). The meaning of things: Domestic symbols and the self. Cambridge University Press.

Price, A (2003). "Encouraging reflection and critical thinking in practice". Nursing Standard 18 (47). 

Schön, D. A. (1984). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action (Vol. 5126). Basic Books.