Design For A Better System.

From Dr. Bruce Becker’s presentation, I noticed that there is so much more than a product and user interaction. There is the service that is obtained through it. I am working in a Cell phone project for older users in one of my studios. By narrowing down our user’s group, I noticed that the more I focused on experience, the physical product becomes secondary. The older user group doesn’t care about how much innovation and technology they can get out of the cell phone, but how efficiently it serves to the purpose: connecting to family and friends. To come up with the best solution for a product, the first step for a designer is to research the market feasibilities and user’s need, they can use these acquired skills to observe and critically analyze the existing system and from that create solutions for a better environment. Designers are trained in a way to think systematically. When designing a new product, they have to be conscious of how it can be made, such as the manufacture order, materials, and cost. It is interesting to see how this project could somehow relate to some of the points discussed in Dr. Bruce Becker’s presentation. When he asked what would be the things we could create to construct a perfect shelter most of the answers were related to creating a “better system”: a system that would facilitate how a shelter work. A set of systems structured to create a better work hierarchy, to make most out of the existing energy and water, and to avoid confrontations among different cultures. All of them could be seen as System of behavior, where one’s action leads to the next. Observe, analyze, and create a system that like a cell phone (intuitively) explains “how to”.

To get to that point, designers have to take into consideration the history and the different cultures for a better assimilation from the user’s part. By that I believe designers are like anthropologist and psychologist. Like anthropologist, designers have to study cultural difference throughout time and space. They have to acknowledge the cross culture and do not impose judgment. Like psychologists, designers have to observed and analyze human behavior through a direct contact with the case studied.

However, contrary to those fields of studies, designers have the ability to use the collected data and come up with physical solutions to improvements. After hearing the lecture, it made me think about the emotion aspect of design. There are a lot of outputs when it comes to creating innovative designs relied on technology. It provides solutions to develop living life and humanity profits a lot from it. However during the lecture, the disruption of one’s before life in the refugee camps called my attention. The displacement of populations caused by natural disasters or political chaos affect people not only in their basics living style, such as location, nutrition, and health; but also, the merge on a different culture, the language barrier, and the separation from people can cause inner turmoils. This psychological distress is something that passes unnoticed or even considered superfluous in times of political and social disorder. However, I think it is an important issue given the fact that people in those situations often don’t express such emotions that are impediment for them to settle down. There are so many things that can be done to make their lives better but what is the point when they don’t feel like that?

This is the time when designers as anthropologist and psychologist can study different cultures, their traditions, beliefs, and habits, as well as observe the common behaviors from people who suffer from that. It would be interesting to see what kind of products and service system we, as a designer, could create as a response to their need. For instance, looking through the Cooper-Hewitt’s designing for” the other 90%”, I think that education is a good point of start because, as mentioned in the website, it “empowers people”. It gives them an opportunity to empower themselves as individuals and from that communities. Individuals are the core for a well working system. All that made me think designers on service of better making the world work.