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"And so every story is. . . an ice sculpture. . . deciding what to remove."
"And so every story is. . . an ice sculpture. . . deciding what to remove."
After understanding the limitations of other's perceptions, I realized that being aware of this was the first step in the design process. While we have these limitations, we can do our best to understand others and work with those who have experiences unlike our own. In class, we started to consider and list out the many perspectives and systems that are invisible to what we see on the surface.
IJ21: Golden as a Complex System
In this entry, I started to think about all of the systems that factored into Coors Brewery. In all honesty, I have never really thought about what goes beyond a building's surface before assignments like these. I think I was subtly aware of these invisible, but never thought about how these different parts were interconnected. Thinking about this has also allowed me to learn about new "invisibles." For instance, being an environmentalist, I have always thought about how much pollution Coor's Brewery contributes to Golden's ecosystem. What I haven't thought about is how the brewery had a serious racist and homophobic history and how that might have, in a way, created or encouraged a primarily white community in Golden. Considering this, I was thinking about how Golden's demographic has influenced policies, funding, and general ways of life.
Assignments like these changed how I view design. I no longer thought of design as a one-and-done kind of deal. Instead, I realize creating a design is creating a product that has influences that go past the consumer.
This was my diagram for the interactions between different systems in Nosedive. Instead of just noting the different systems that were present, I gave time to think about how those systems are connected and how one situation can ultimately drive another aspect of society.
I have this "social divide" that separates access to technology from lack of technology. Through making this map, I felt I could finally understand why it was so hard to move from having a low rating to a higher rating (moving up in society).
This assignment helped me start to account for all of the ulterior systems that a design can lead to in a social context.
IJ26: Looking into the Mirror
IJ18: Reflecting Upon and Reporting your Redesign
This assignment had me draw a chart showing my thought process for a design. My partner and I were trying to design something new for Harmony Village (the place in Golden we were sent to explore).
Thinking about all the systems that are involved can be a little overwhelming. A design rarely, if ever, addresses all types of people and possible drawbacks. Many problems we design solutions to are wicked problems with no one perfect solution. However, thoroughly thinking about these systems can help lead to a design that addressed some issues rather than creating more.
Ultimately, when creating a design, you have to make cuts and edits to reach the final product. Leaving too much in can be confusing and too difficult to work with. Cutting too much out can exclude different systems and worsen or create new issues at hand.
Design grants you the power to change, but also the power to really screw things up if not taken seriously. Taking time to process various systems, people, and the interconnections between can help you in your design process to differentiate what will be successful and beneficial from what won't. Considering these aspects will lead to a design that addresses the thing you want to change.
Click the Change tab to learn about how all of these components come together to make a difference.
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