Articles review (2)

Your Business card is crap!

http://www.core77.com/blog/videos/your_business_card_is_crap_13159.asp

Not that I agree, but I feel like the aggressive way he uses to mention some things about business cards is interesting.

Good game?

May 28th 2009
From The Economist print edition

http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13726738

Playing video games can make you a better person

This article presents video games as an alternative way to educate young people, regarding their interest in playing video games. The author supports his idea with two studies that are presented in the article and they show that video games with an appropriate content can have a good impact to young people. The general result of the research is that when young people (10-17 years old) played the "pro-social" games ((the "“Chibi-Robo!”, which involves helping characters in the game by doing their chores, or “Super Mario Sunshine”, in which players clean up pollution and graffiti.) as guided they were "rated as more helpful to those around them in real life." A second study showed that generally these games may or may not affect the behaviour. From both studies, the outcome is that depending on what behaviours you will feed to kids you will probably have corresponding results. This is not something unexcpected. On the other hand the older generation should not be very judgmental to youthful habit that it may not understand which leads to that : "medium is not always the message".

What are the 10 big design challenges in the social sector?

http://designthinking.ideo.com/?p=12/#content

Researching for my Thesis I realize my general interest social oriented design. Here are the UN Millennium Development Goals, as mentioned in the article:

Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Achieve universal primary education
Promote gender equality and empower women
Reduce child mortality
Improve maternal health
Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Ensure environmental sustainability
Develop a global partnership for development

This list is mentioned by the author as a first step to gather the big design problems in the social sector. Another important and crucial factor of this design direction is the need to be as specific as possible. This is reason why the author presents this list.

How might we design a participatory system?

http://designthinking.ideo.com/?p=301#content

The main idea of the article is that "participation is key to the next big wave of innovation in business and society". I am a strong support of this point of view. From my little experience whenever I was working with a group I can say that I was even more creative and the outcome (right because it is an outcome that combines many different beliefs and ideas) has been successful. The author also mentions the importance of remaining loyal to design systems that have human centered character and the importance of keeping the interactions designed profitable for all participants. ("an interaction that becomes a productive investment, not an act of consumption"). Concerning effective innovation the author suggests "Rapid prototyping" and “learning by making” as an accepted strategy. Ideas are welcome about this "participatory system concept" because is the author is working on it as a thesis topic.

Why People Believe Invisible Agents Control the World

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=skeptic-agenticity

The article examines what makes people believe that the world is haunted and controlled by invisible agents of any kind. This tendency to believe that the world is controlled by invisible intentional agents is called "agenticity" and it's a result of "the capacity to be aware of such mental states as desires and intentions in both ourselves and others" (human brain function).“Many highly educated and intelligent individuals experience a powerful sense that there are patterns, forces, energies and entities operating in the world,” Hood explains. And the general conclusion of the article is that as humans we are " natural-born supernaturalists."

Polaroid Lovers Try to Revive Its Instant Film




http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/technology/26polaroid.html?_r=1&em

I thought what was interesting about this article is that first of all, some people try to revive an "oldschool" way of taking pictures. And as mentioned in the article, even though that seems retrograde, the arguments of the people who try to revive polaroid is that, “It is about the importance of analog aspects in a more and more digital world.”
After many business discussions what they are now trying to do it so research and reinvent the "chemicals that can mimic what Polaroid’s own once did".

Is Design Too Important To Be Left Only To Designers?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 30 in Business Week

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/NussbaumOnDesign/archives/2009/04/is_design_too_i.html

Another Article related to my Thesis. The main point of the article is that "The failure of existing modes of delivering services to consumers, students, patients, travelers, etc., is making Design a hugely important system of reframing old problems and creating new answers." When I started researching for my Thesis I had the same question, just rephrased as I wasn't able to judge the "existing modes". One main point is that "the integration of sociology, anthropology, and psychology broadly into design gave it much greater gravitas and power to do large-scale change" and for that reason it is questioned if designer can handle this new direction. As pointed from the author "the vigor now infusing design appears to be coming from outside the field from non-designers" but that doesn't mean that non-designers will be the ones who will take design to the next level. Design is still proving that have more competencies to reveal and one of its main strengths is to "integrate and iterate". The coclusion insinuates that it is time for designers to practise on this next level but still the question comes back "Is Design Too Important To Be Left Only To Designers?"