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April 04, 2007

Interactive Design

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Should you choose to invest a bit of time, you are about to watch a lecture given by interaction designer, John Zimmerman of Carnegie Mellon, who has provided us with a little something upon which to hone our ability to attend.

When considering product design from a identity perspective, Zimmerman says that "You are the constellation of all the products you have brought into your lives." He asks: " How does a product help people understand who they are and who they want to be?" "Can products provide scaffolding for identity development?" "How can this product help to enhance a person's role?"

For example, the introduction of the scanner at the grocery store, diminished, rather than enhanced the role of the cashier. With the scanner, the cashier became the servant of a machine, rather than the master of the cash register. Job satisfaction is thus reduced.

I took notes, but you're just gonna have to watch Designing for the Self, since summarizing is taking forever, and I'm doing it badly.

The sweetest thing about interactive designers is that they are trying to design products to help people feel better about themselves, so that rather than asking "What can I make the devices in my home do? they will ask "What can the devices in my home do to make me feel better."

Zimmerman is currently working with dual income families with children on a project called SmartHome. Dual income familities are very receptive to new technology but feel like bad parents and imagine other people think they are bad parents. He believes that there's a way to design products that help them feel less overwhelmed. He's also working with college freshmen to find products that address their life transition.

As long as we're going to be consumers, let's do it more consciously. Go ahead, watch the movie. It will make you examine your possessions with a fresh eye, at the very least.

Photo note: See that little green self peeking out from all the product? Shot on location in Guilin. China

Posted by Dakota at April 4, 2007 09:10 PM