Most designers spent most of their time developing things that were tangible. Almost all of their work was for the wealthiest 10 percent of the global population, the pampered minority who already owned more than they needed or wanted, although only a few of them felt guilty about it.I've always loved new technologies. In grade school, I was one of the first people to use instant messenger and email, and I taught myself HTML and set up a simple template system so I could blog before blogging was a household word. I used Telnet, played MUDs, chatted on IRC, discussed on Usenet, texted on my phone back in the days when you had ask people if their phones can handle texting, and read the NY Times on my Palm Pilot.
All of that has changed in the last 10 years — or should have. Just think of what’s happened. Giant leaps in science and technology. Environmental crisis. Economic turbulence. Social and political meltdown. This tsunami of changes has created daunting challenges and thrilling opportunities for designers.
Trying to Be Responsible and Cutting-Edge, Too
It was a lonely world, though; my online life was by and large separate from my offline life. What's been remarkable in the past 10 years has been seeing how all these social and mobile technologies have become mainstream. I can meet someone at a party and friend them on Facebook; I can meet someone on Twitter and get drinks in the real world. Mobile and social technologies are now so deeply embedded into daily life that we can't remember how to live without them.
The next step now is seeing how these technologies become mainstream not just in the developed world, but in developing nations. The next billion people to go online will be doing so via mobile phones, not computers, and they'll be coming largely from the poorest countries on earth. I experienced this personally when raising money for typhoon victims in the Philippines.
It seems to me that technology design has incredible potential right now to transform the lives of ordinary citizens in countries where the existing infrastructures have failed to provide for basic needs. And the most remarkable thing is that we don't necessarily have to develop new technologies; we just need to design new ways to use what's already there. One amazing but very simple example is an SMS-based quiz system by Text To Change, designed to educate people in Uganda, Kenya and Namibia about basic HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.
See also: Mainstream and Mobile, and Game Changers and Mobile Phones
Labels: design, technology
Post a Comment