RULE 43

Posts Tagged ‘Communication’

The consciousness of the need to attend to content and context in order to plan effective design responses pushes designers to reconsider their knowledge, their tools, and their ways of working. The very notion of the object of design needs reassessment: we used to design objects, but now we have to think more about activities, the activities that people engage in, sometimes as a result of the objects and services we design. The commercial push for innovation calls for methods to evaluate the possible futures that these innovations could bring. New conceptual tools are required. The tools required must always place people at the center, sometimes observing them from very close quarters, sometimes bringing them into the design development loop.

The new information technologies afford nearly instantaneous feedback. Consequently, communication design has moved from being a one-way transmission of the message to being an interactive scenario that unfolds rapidly over time. But we, as designers, do not yet have the knowledge, processes, or tools to deal with the unfolding of the interactive flow of information.
The design education system is struggling to keep up with the demands of these new challenges. Students want to be prepared to live and work in the interactive world, but those who teach them are struggling even to learn the new tools, How can we teach the next generation of designers when we don’t understand the tools or the media?
We are at a crossroads in communication design. Design and marketing professionals sell “experience design.” Some Web design firms proudly claim to be able to “manufacture experience.” Do they really think they have the ability to design or to manufacture an experience for someone else? Do they think they have the right to determine what other people experience? Unfortunately many claim to be doing so.

In the generative research I have conducted over the last three years for many different clients, it has become increasingly evident that everyday people are no longer satisfied with simply being “consumers.” They want to be “creators” as well. This unmet need for creativity is being expressed through the use of participatory tool kits (Sanders and William) whether we are conducting research with people about their home experiences, their learning experiences, or their work experiences. Their examples of what constitutes creative behavior are surprisingly varied. For example, some people say they feel creative when they are exercising or when they are cleaning out the closet. Others feel creative when making scrapbooks from family photographs. And others feel creative when they are cooking “freestyle,” making up the recipe as they go from whatever ingredients they have on hand.
The interest in more creative ways of living can be seen also in the recent spate of new books dedicated to the topic. Two good examples include Ray and Anderson’s The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People are Changing the World, and Florida’s The Rise of the Creative Class.
New forms of creativity in art and design are emerging as well. Post production (Bourriaud) refers to the increasing number of recent artworks that have been created based primarily on pre-existing works of art. Artists today are interpreting, reproducing, and re-using the art originally created by others. Similarly, “ad hocism” is the idea that describes the trend in industrial design whereby old products are salvaged and recombined to create new ones. The new products are often humorous, such as cheese-grater lamps and scrub-brush coat racks (Thompson).

Why are people expressing their unmet needs for creativity now? One explanation is that the tools we have made to “improve” our lives have, in fact, taken creativity away from us. A concern that this might happen was voiced over thirty years ago by Ivan Illich, one of the radical theorists of the 1960s.
Which defined tools as anything made by man. “I use the term ‘tool’ broadly enough to include not only simple hardware such as drills, pots, syringes, brooms, building elements, or motors, and not just large machines like cars or power stations. I also include among tools productive institutions such as factories that produce tangible commodities like corn flakes or electric current and productive systems for intangible commodities such as those which produce ‘education,’‘health,’‘knowledge,’ or ‘decisions’.” (lllich, 20). In other words, all the artifacts of the design process are tools, according to Illich.
Illich described the difference between two basic types of tools. “Convivial toots allow users to invest the world with their meaning, to enrich the environment with the fruits of their visions, and to use them for the accomplishment of a purpose they have chosen. Industrial tools deny this possibility to those who use them, and they allow their designers to determine the meaning and expectations of others.”
He argued in Tools for Conviviality for the exploration and use of convivial is opposed to industrial tools. He described eloquently how a balance between con sumptive and creative activities was necessary for human survival. “People need not only to obtain things, they need, above all, the freedom to make things among which they can live, to give shape to them according to their own tastes, and to put them to use in caring for and about others” (Illich, 20).

Recording What You Learn. If you plan to take notes during an inter-
view, tell your expert that you want to be sure to quote him or her correctly in your speech. If you are not certain that you wrote down an answer correctly, read it back for confirmation. After you have completed the interview, find a quiet place to go over your notes and write out the answers to important questions while your expert’s wording is still fresh in your mind.

About the design of a customized system of forty-two icons to help AM, my stepfather— who suffers from aphasia because of a stroke—to communicate. It is also about a personal experience and it is about the creation of possibilities. The system of icons was designed according to the individual’s needs, and taking into consideration his level of education, age, background, personal interests, personal objects, and preferences for styles, among other considerations. It was also designed according to the needs of the caregiver.
To understand the project, it is necessary to understand the individual and the family situation. AM was seventy-two years old when he suffered the stroke. He used to be a lawyer, specializing in legislation, and in the history of the Constitution. Although retired, AM was still working as a consultant. One of his hobbies was reading,’and the subjects of the books that he read were usually related to his profession. His professional life, however, ended after the stroke.
As a result of the stroke, AM suffers from Broca’s aphasia, a nonfluent aphasia. Individuals with this kind of aphasia have their speech reduced to a few words, which are produced with effort, When trying to articulate a sentence, the effort is such and the result is so poor, usually just one or two words, that the individual becomes tired and frustrated. Auditory comprehension in AM is good, and he can “participate” in a conversation by just listening, but he is not able to respond to questions or to make comments. It is not that he doesn’t want to, he can’t. He is able to talk on the phone, answering with brief sentences (for example, “hello,”“I feel fine”).
In the case of AM, the right side of the body is also affected. Even though the arm is not paralyzed, it has become weak. Writing is also affected, and he is not able to sign a form, but he is able to do a mark. His reading comprehension is generally good, and he is able to read the titles in the newspaper, but not a complete article. In general, “ . . . individuals rarely read for recreation because of the slowness and the effort required” (Goodglass, 210), His ability to gesture is lost, To survive the stroke, AM had to have surgery in a main neck artery, and after the surgery he needed to avoid moving his head and neck for a brief period.
The whole family situation is altered because the individual should not be left alone. If he needs something, he is not able to communicate his needs by phone or to explain his situation. Someone has to be at home to care for him. Because of the weakness in his right arm, for example, AM is not able to prepare his own lunch.