Design Responsibly

(Published at GOOD.is on 7 January 2010)

No sooner had the newspaper headline hit our table, the architects I was with were discussing crisis, chaos, but most passionately, bankers.

2009 was a year of financial crisis, a year in which a bad, bad light was shed on the entire sector, bankers in particular. They were held responsible for the financial crisis, which is of course having detrimental effects on all other sectors, including architecture and design.

As the crisis emerged, fear and mistrust spread, and naturally, the search for who could be held responsible began. Finding the cause may, after all, have lead to curing the problem and improving the symptoms – securing our positions within our own sectors. After all, we had just been minding our own business – why did we now have to feel the impact of actions we were not responsible for?

The financial sector is, no doubt, very responsible for the financial crisis. However, as we roll into the New Year, we could do with spotting that the current crisis is more than just a financial one. It is an unemployment crisis, a confidence crisis, a social crisis, and a creative crisis. It is a total crisis. It impacts all sectors and it was allowed to happen by all sectors, be that actively or passively.

Finger-pointing can be done with little thought, interest or self-reflection as the media demonstrated last year. However, economic reports and political action indicate that finger-pointing alone can achieve very little in the way of reality change. Bank bail-outs and end of year bonuses highlight our persistent reliance on the financial sector within the current mindset. It seemed ironic that the Dubai World article had architects blaming the bankers alone, for a financial crisis that was now resulting in friends and colleagues losing their jobs – whilst staring at newspaper images of desert skyscrapers. As if those towers had been built by bankers alone. Out of stacks of dollar bills?

Dubai’s skyline is filled with iconic constructs designed by firms in our own countries – those very firms are now suffering the effects of financial instability. Instability on a scale comparable to the development of places, like Dubai. Instability on a scale comparable to Dubai’s loans – provided by our own financial sectors.

These incidents are not isolated to this particular year, or to the architectural sector. In the design field, we regularly despair about a lack of quality products, a lack of local manufacturing, a lack of value given to design and the detrimental effects of mass production and consumption. But then we find ourselves working within an industry that continues to issue instructions for ever-more products to be produced at ever-cut costs, in ever-distant factories for ever-lower need without asking many questions.

It is often suggested that through technological advancement of the industrial and digital revolutions, the impact of design is now at its greatest. Never before have the tools we design reached so many and been used as intensely. With this potential for opportunity, comes the need for responsibility. As quickly as we can imagine our products making a positive widespread impact, can our choices about why and how they are created make as many negative ripples.

This need for responsibility in the design world is dealt with in a very emotive manner. It is often interpreted in various ways and sometimes injected into projects and products when any effort at all has been made to think beyond the product during it’s design. What is really needed to gain responsibility is not a gung-ho smattering of the term onto our current way of working, but a humble re-think about how design should fit in to the changing economic and social models, in order to curb our crisis.

A new enthusiasm can be seen from designers looking to become informed and integrate the understanding previously left to the men in suits can be seen. The New Economics Foundation is an independent organization aiming to inspire and demonstrate real economic wellbeing. Their intention is to consider and visualize economic, environment and social issues while working with all sections of society to create more understanding and strategies for change. It is this understanding that we should perhaps be seeking as designers, confused and panicked by the current situation. In difficult times it is often more tempting than ever to point the finger away from ourselves and use the situation to justify taking more of the very actions that helped get us here in the first place.

As well as understanding the economic theories and strategies that move us towards needed change, an understanding of the reality may also inspire us to do so. I recently came across ‘After Redundancy’ a photography collection by James Whitaker, an architect working for a prominent UK office. Until the crisis.

After redundancy, Whitaker took the opportunity to work on his passion and set up his photography studio. His latest collection beautifully expresses the situation in the UK architectural industry right now. A recent estimation by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) suggested that up to 30% of trained architects in the UK were under or unemployed. ‘After Redundancy’ is an optimistic snap-shot of a cross-section of real-cases of this statistic.

As with any personal growth in responsibility, it requires effort, dedication and education. Responsible designers must pay attention to the world around them, even the boring bits. If there is any chance for the right choices to be made, the right questions must be asked. We won’t be able to correct our decisions over night, but we must at least be informed. As the current crisis has demonstrated, it is not in the interest of the financial sector to do this for us, and as we feel the impact of our own decisions, it is up to us to get informed and design responsibly.

So, after a year of chaos, and blame, maybe it is time to move out of our project-to-project, studio thinking and time to make a New Year’s resolution to understand responsibility, so we can design responsibly and really mind our own business.

First published on 6 January 2010 at designmind.com > blogs > frogspawn

Status Updates & Other Thoughts

‘…Sunny Stuttgart Sunday’ I thought as I jogged through the park during my weekly ‘zone out’, ‘switch off’, ‘zen inhalation’. As the words ran through my mind, I realized they were capitalized, in a box preceded by “Eleanor Davies…’.

“Eleanor Davies is…SUNNY STUTTGART SUNDAY!”

How had relaxing Sunday strolls become entangled in the world of Online Social Networking? Was it no longer possible to relate an experience to anything more than a snappy, catchphrase? Online one-liners.

Any element of zen was immediately expelled as I delved into the reasons behind what just happened, whilst coping with the realization that over recent weeks, my previously private thoughts had been slowly but surely replaced with unreleased status updates. Onliners.

Eleanor is… ‘Monday Morning Moaning’ – ‘Lost in Translation’ – ‘Quitting the Queue’ – ‘Globally Warmed’ – ‘Super Sleepy Saturday’ – ‘Waiting for Wrong’ – ‘Possibly Party’ – ‘Blog Ready’ – ‘Definitely Done…with thinking in status updates’.

Attempting to find some explanation for the erosion of my previously normal and even occasionally eloquent internal dialogue, I noticed articles in the press covering the loss of conversation in today’s Facebook society, the inundation of ego statements, strange real-world communication-phenomena and the flow of Facebook statements themselves.

Media articles have been increasingly discussing messaging phenomena such as Text, Facebook and Twitter. This year the Guardian Newspaper held its Activate conference in London. Both the global and local societal effects of communication technology were discussed during an intense day of debate. Draped behind the panel however, was a live Twitter feed of comments coming from audience members, both real and virtual.

Apt, or ironic, to be discussing implications to society caused by recent changes in communications platforms, whilst having to respond to a live-update of reactionary Tweets mid-speech. Though initially thought provoking and topical, my lasting impression, confirmed by the comment – ‘Thomas Gensemer (Blue State Digital/Obama Online) looks a lot like Gary Oldman’ – was of disruption more usually caused by hecklers at a Stand-Up comedy night.

It was at this Tweet-conference where The Future of Humanity and Society in the time of the Internet was being discussed, that I heard the phrase ‘Connecting to Disconnect’ – an answer Arianna Huffington (Huffington Post) – gave to the question of what the next big Internet Revolution is to be.

It is a phrase that seemed to ring true with my recent research findings. Whilst investigating Internet use on a recent project we found people increasingly looking to the virtual world as a means to connect with their real world – be that a Bar Camp, Forum or Online Date.

Where has our desire to join Online Social Networks led? Intentions to connecting with ‘real-world’ friends to allow us to share previously separated facets of our lives – have resulted in the progression of text-based communication from letter to fax, email, text, message, tweet and status update. It seems that this has been followed by a regression from conversing to chittering, chattering, nattering, shouting and as the German’s might say ‘Snick-Snack’ing.

‘Snick-Snack’ is a colloquial expression for superfluous decoration of a rather ordinary event. Socially networked people are increasingly swimming through alerts of the mundane, fashioned into snappy updates – at best. Tenuous contacts are delivered as Friend Recommendations and tagged photographs of other peoples’ parties fill our screens.

The form our new communication techniques takes, when translated to the real-word is similar to that of a school playground. Gossip, Chat, Messages, Pokes and Shouts are all equally frowned upon about the time we are told as kids that no one likes a Show Off.

In recent months the potential to connect individuals en mass allow communications between worlds, both real and virtual, has become apparent. We may be able to utilize communications technology to create momentum and catalyze change where it is most needed. Twitter reports coming from Iranian protests, Chinese demonstrations or shaking earthquake zones can release populations from isolation.

Thinking about my own Sunday morning jog, in which my state of solitude was interrupted by thoughts of how to report just that – I wonder if, while communication in a ‘virtual’ world has the potential to help connect the isolated and oppressed, may it simultaneously be isolating and oppressing those previously free to connect in the ‘real’ world?

Or could there be a harsher truth? – That we are all equally isolated and Facebook is simply allowing the real world to ‘Alert’ the virtual and ‘Shout’ about our own individual virtual oppression?

The sheer amount of Online presence and updates contradicts the very content we spend our Online time creating – confirmations via the virtual world that we are busy living in the real.

Not only is the location of our new communication worrying, but the content and format is reducing our previously complex communication skills, which have formed and evolved as we have. The etiquette and elegance with which humans have learnt to interact varies intricately between cultures. The way in which we articulate our thoughts can in turn influence the way we think – and it is this relationship that becomes an ‘Alert’ when projecting the effect of ‘Shout’ culture.

As we lose our established means of communication to ‘Likes’ ‘Dislikes’ and other One Liners, will we lose our ability to converse, convey and debate?

My most recent Status Update incident has led me to reconsider my Online presence all together. Up past midnight in a hotel room with a colleague, I was alerted to the fact it was my birthday via a Notification to her Facebook account. Initially surprised and congratulated, I then found myself in a flurry of Online communication and follow-up posts which were a far cry from the human interaction and welcome greetings from those friends who had actually remembered.

Concluding my thoughts after a weekend with real-world friends, who I am, these days, more familiar with meeting in the virtual world, with all Status Update thoughts finally dispelled and my internal monologue returned, I realize I may have just achieved the holy grail of communication – Disconnecting to Connect.

First published on 30 November 2009 at designmind.com > blogs > frogspawn

Emerging from Emerging Markets

Emerging markets: We are currently on a come down from in-field research – where Russia’s emerging consumer tissue market was compared to European counterparts.

Culture clash is an understatement – as Pre and Post-Soviet ways blend together to create a unique consumer atmosphere – we see shelves of single roll, single ply, 5 Cent toilet paper, beside exorbitant packs of luxury scented wet wipes.

Streets are scoured with vending machines, some have digital interfaces, others are manned by human faces.

6 lane traffic can be halted at any moment by a governmental convoy taking a politician to his country home. Between these lanes skoot the delivery vans of Utkonos, Moscow’s very own Online only grocery store.

Emerging Markets? It seems we are just emerging ourselves from a field comparison leaving much food for thought.

First published on 30 November at designmind.com > blogs > frogspawn

Mind the Gap – Hand Me Down

Back in London on a frog research mission, I quickly found myself speeding around on sweaty tubes getting dizzy from the bright lights, flashing ads and competitive consumption. I found some breathing space back at an old haunt, howies, on Carnaby Street, Soho.

howies is a British clothing company with a conscience who, since 1995, have grown out of a living room into an influential organisation with a strong online presence. The founders of the yearly Do Lectures (TED talks in a Tipi) they also host monthly Wee Dos out of their stores which allow discussion, debate and learning about social and environmental responisbility – the keys to their overall aim:

The Aim to be Lower Impact

Hopefully we are smart enough to realise that everything we do, screws something up.
As a company, we have to realise that.
There is no perfect clothing company.
Let’s be honest with ourselves and with our customers about that.
What we are doing at howies is trying to find ways to lessen that impact.

An attendee of the first Do Lectures, and an online howies fan, I was keen to see recent launches at the store and check out recent additions to the book shelves, which turn a wait outside the changing rooms into an eye-opening education.

On this visit I was introduced to the Hand-Me-Down collection, a series of bags and jackets which have been designed to last. In an attempt to reduce impact, design and material choices have been made with the intention that the collection will stand the test of time. Moving away from the fashion notion of ‘This Season’s’ the collection are bought with a contract, made between the owner, the item and howies. The contract states the person who the owner will hand-them-down to if they do ever stop using the them.

The Hand-Me-Down Story from howies goes like this;

We live in times of limited resources but unlimited desire to consume them. The answer though is real simple: to consume less as a consumer; to make a better designed product as a manufacturer.

Going forward we will have to take more responsibility for our consumption. The manufacturer and the consumer will both have to share that responsibility.

We live in interesting times.

From where we stand as a manufacturer, a product that keeps working for longer uses less-resources in the end. The key ingredients to this are quality and good design.

To make something well, you know, the best you can do, means going that extra mile. Every stitch, every zip, every little feature considered. The weakest points made strong. Then, and only then, can we say that we have fully understood the responsibility of making something.

This product is guaranteed for a minimum of 10 years from the date of original purchase. The chances are it will last a good deal longer than that. So now you have to decide whom you’d like to hand this product down to? Err??

(David Hieatt, howies co-founder)

I am not sure how successful the Hand-Me-Down collection has been so far, or how it might be applied to other product types. Will the sales will be high enough? Will the contract lived up to its promise? What is clear, is that their aim is a challenge all manufacturers have to face – How to be Lower Impact – and amongst the bright lights of Soho, howies have the Biggest Impact  when it comes to another of their aims, to make us THINK.

First published on 14th November 2009 at designmind.com > blogs > frogspawn

Democratic Design

The end of September saw a few of us ‘Ausländer’ frogs here in Stuttgart having a crash course in German politics as the country went to the ballot boxes. The first barrier to our understanding of the election was, as with most local events, language. And so we entrusted translation to our native colleagues, gathering for a Sunday night Political Grill to catch the Live-stream vote count and some good frog hospitality.

As the evening progressed, it was confirmed that in politics, whatever the country, language is not the only barrier to understanding.

In Germany there are many potential outcomes for leadership that may arise after the elections. Coalition rule exists if no single party wins by a majority vote – rather than a ‘first past the post’ system. Coalition combinations depend on the level of top party dominance and thus the situation becomes more complex.
So, there were some cultural differences to understand.

With language and cultural differences covered, the main barrier still remained –one which German voters were also experiencing – understanding which Party stood for which policies.

This lack of comprehension of complex sets of variables, on which decisions are to be based, also relates to the design process. Both the voting booth and the drawing board require choices to be made once constraints and parameters are considered.

Each choice has pros and cons: the goal of the design process being to maximize the pros and limit the cons through a series of informed, considered decisions. An essential part of the process is therefore translating these decisions within the team, and communicating the rational behind them to clients.

So – how to inform, and how to represent the complex decision making process, in an easy and understandable, yet appealing and attractive way?

Information Visuals have been causing a buzz in graphic design and their popularity may represent peoples desire to simplify things in a world that seems ever more complex. With vast sources of detailed information now at our fingertips, people are increasingly looking to understand complex issues without having to become experts in Google search field.

Statistics and data are no longer the property of scientists and researchers but can be accessed from living rooms with the click of a mouse.

In the case of the German election, lack of voter comprehension has been addressed in the form of an Online Selector Tool. ‘Wahl-O-Mat’ generates a suggested candidate or party, based on individual’s policy preferences. A good step towards clarifying the choices involved, Online Selectors are being increasingly used in Europe, especially targeting younger voters.

Despite its apparent success in improving electoral turn out, it seems people find it difficult to trust a selection process which appears to simplify politics based on a rigid set of statements and responses. The statement correlations and Party compatability provide a recommendation on who to vote for, whilst the coallition formations which might result from their votes remain unclear. There is much speculation about how many people eventually vote for the Party selected for them by Wahl-O-Mat.

So often Information Visuals fall down trying to strike exactly this balance – over-simplification leads to a lack of transparency, trust and therefore understanding of the issues – too much information leaves the situation too complex. This difficult balance between effort and ease is something conveyers of data have always struggled with – long before the arrival of Processing and Action Script – and is what keeps the majority of current Information Visualizations bouncing between ‘Interesting’ and ‘Beautiful’ – often missing ‘Useful’

Browsing at a Stuttgart thrift store led to a find that on first appearance seemed to be a rural version of Monopoly. On further investigation (playing with it) Ökolopoly, a German game from 1984, revealed itself to be an early example of Social / Economic / Ecological Interaction Design for Systems Visualization – packaged as a board game aimed at 1-6 players aged 6 – 99!A system of cardboard cogs connects various aspects of a nation. Players choose between ‘Kybernetien’ an industrial nation and ‘Kyborien’ a developing country. Adjusting 9 cogs affects current conditions of these aspects. The cogs influence each other: with a high investment in “production” increasing “waste”, which in turn decreases “standard of living”, and so decreases “action points” (political acceptance) for the next round.

The goal is to guarantee stable conditions, but often the game ends in disaster. Indeed it is so difficult to balance all the aspects of the nation that there is no room for competition – players have to work turn by turn…together!

Though not a festive family favorite (maybe its lack of competition sees Monopoly being brought out instead), Ökolopoly is a great example of balance between interaction, simulation and visualization – with the cause and effect of actions displayed very apparently.

In a world of increasing information, there is a growing need to understand complexity through interactive simulation in order to make considered, collaborative choices. Could Ökolopolical takes on remote participatory design, visualized optimization and research translation methods open doors to a world of Democratic Design?

First published on 9th November 2009 at designmind.com > blogs > frogspawn