Writer, designer, and researcher Alex Wright reflects upon co-teaching an interaction design class this past summer. The below excerpt has been published with his permission.
How might interaction designers working in industry begin to address “long view” problems like climate change, income equality, or biodiversity — while working in professional settings that all too often tend to prioritize short-term gains and incremental wins?
Waste Management: Mapping the Fashion Waste Problem by Melinda Chen
This summer, Erica Dorn and I explored that question along with a group of nine students at the School of Visual Arts’ Summer Intensive in Interaction Design. Participants included a mix of professional designers working in a range of in-house and agency roles in New York City, as well as two undergraduates interested in exploring interaction design as a career path.
Experiential futures and speculative design practices have been gaining traction in the design world lately, fueled by a growing interest in futuring methods at high-profile agencies like frog and IDEO, and design schools like Stanford’s d.school and CMU (see: Dunagan). The last few years have also seen the emergence of speculative design work taking shape with in-house teams at places like Google, Apple, and The New York Times. (Continue reading on original website…)
