Designing Design Review
A critique of modern design by Kenya Hara
The main idea expressed in “Designing Design” explores the focus on recent technology, specifically eluding to attributes of the result rather than the social responsibility of design. Kenya Hara, the author of “Designing Design,” criticizes recent design advancements by informing the impression that a concept with visible aspects such as precision, truthfulness, sincerity, or simplicity can provide an experience that underlines, ‘‘the very commonness of everyday life” (Armstrong, 124). The intention of this text raises some questions and concerns about the unhealthy technological environment and accumulated amount knowable by a single individual, making it impossible to comprehend (Armstrong, 125).
Through analyzing the approach taken in modern technology and design, the obstacle of life with technology depends on considering the complexity and irregularity of design. “Perhaps it is in our interest to question the received notion that to solve a problem; you have to create a new design. There may be some learning problems that cannot be solved by a better design” (Keitges, 385). With this in mind, an uncertain opinion derives from this text that gets readers, questioning how a design should consider implementing principles. The cognitive challenge of learning good and poor design with a wide range of mediums and media approaches deliver a positive and negative interpretation of ‘human-centered’ design.
The author critiques the relationship between technology and communication by appealing to ethos as a designer, author, curator, and educator and interpreting the power of both through the innovator’s dilemma and cognitive science. Kenya Hara’s literary piece conforms with the pillars of graphic design theory by exploring the ideology of an avant-garde approach, while equally portraying a social responsibility about universal design. The avant-garde approach conveyed when Hara communicates; there is a fundamental change or underlying assumption to rival the industrial revolution (Armstrong, 124). The context breaks from the manifesto of futurism and instead influences sociality to change how people think. The text uses apparent motives of designers and the use of rhetorical devices to criticize the implications of the rapid rate of technology and advancement in design (Norman, 8).
Kenya Hara begins his critic by suggesting consumers return to “Earth,” that the fascination of the impossible such as, “the world busing itself with worries and preparations for intergalactic travel shields users of the importance of present life” (Armstrong, 124). Although this is true, the obsession of creating diegetic/digital fiction prototypes, products, and services to illustrate a point or spark a conversation has been a reliable design tool (Shelly, Terminology). For instance, Director Brett Leonard created the movie, “The Lawnmower Man” in 1992, “which highlighted the potential of Virtual Reality (VR). While the film got criticized for its horror elements, the film’s depictions of virtual reality technology increased the public’s desire for their virtual reality journeys” (Kirby, 48). Given the importance of a media approach, the design has no potential without an ideal way to pass on the belief or action. Media applications like magazines, applications, video games, with the increase in technology and applications in the form of imaginations alone, creates a more profound meaning and are then portrayed and, therefore, become something of mainstream culture. Looking at something more current, the contrast between a comic book and the movie that includes a fragment of the story proves that mainstream culture remains a social construct. Considering that it may be a right or wrong interpretation of the original, through media translations, any of the reboots or readings gain a new audience or opinion. The underground mainstream theory Heller presents, states that underground culture creates the mainstream culture and “commercial artists appropriate and smooth the edges for modern art, add an ornament here and there to make palatable for the consumer class” (Armstrong, 98). Therefore, the fascination of the impossible through designs is a form of manipulation. Traditional now; the focus of many technology designs is form and function but communicating these principles while glorifying machinery.
Design and technology today have noticeably advanced beyond the amount knowable by a single individual. The entirety can neither grasped nor seen, and Hara further inputs that people think they should not criticize technological progress and have wrapped themselves in this unhealthy technological environment. Therefore, accumulating more stress every day (Armstrong, 125). This ideology is not new, and the number of designers that consider everyday things and life in their work is increasing. As a digital experience design student, agreement that this field has become established as necessary when designing specifically regarding technology and computer-aided products. Designers that would agree with this statement have touched on the notions of Human-centered design (HCD). “HCD is an approach that puts human needs, capabilities, and behavior first, then designs to accommodate” (Norman, 8). This area of focus analyzed through texts such as: “The Design of Everyday Things” by Don Norman, which outlines what makes a great designer produce pleasurable experiences. The main idea that Hara urges designers to stop doing is a strain to keep up with technology and instead begin to experience anew the world in which we live, “human happiness” (Armstrong, 124). The following passage from Norman’s book pairs with the opinion of the technological world and the importance of progress:
Experience is critical, for it determines how fondly people remember their interactions. Was the overall experience positive, or was it frustrating and confusing? When our home technology behaves in an uninterpretable fashion, we can become confused, frustrated, and even angry – all strong negative emotions. When there is understanding, it can lead to a feeling of control, mastery, and of satisfaction or even pride – all strong positive emotions. Cognition and emotion are tightly intertwined, which means that the designers must design with both in mind. (Norman, 10)
An HCD approach considers communication as a vital tool, especially when things go wrong. As mentioned above, Hara believes people should criticize the “progress” in technology. This design philosophy would help and intend for better use and is applicable through the idea of Hara portrays.
In conclusion, analyzing Kenya Hara’s informing article on the importance of Designing Designs in computer technology and beyond modernism has readers rethink their stand on what it means to deliver a product and service today. Having mixed feelings about the critical piece has led the belief that the purpose of the reading is to consider human-driven innovations when designing. Perhaps the keynote to take from this article is to think carefully about the technology we use and stretch the imagination of what possible when considering the human-centered design.
Works Cited
Armstrong, Helen. Graphic Design Theory. [Electronic Resource] : Readings from the Field. Princeton
Architectural Press, 2009. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat01044a&AN=gbc.738460&site=eds live&scope=site.
Keitges, Mark J. “From Design for Dominance to Design for Dialogue.” E-Learning and Digital Media,
vol. 9, no. 4, Jan. 2012, pp. 385 – 391. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ986866&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Kirby, David. “The Future Is Now: Diegetic Prototypes and the Role of Popular Films in Generating
Real-World Technological Development.” Social Studies of Science (Sage Publications, Ltd.), vol. 40, no. 1, Feb. 2010, pp. 41 – 70. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1177/0306312709338325.
Norman, Donald A. The Design of Everyday Things. Basic Books, A Member of the Perseus Books Group, 2013. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat01044a&AN=gbc.320076&site=eds-live&scope=site
Shelly, Katie. “Mindsets, Tools and Terminology of Experience Design.” Medium, Digital Experience
Design, 26 Sept. 2016, https://medium.com/digital-experience-design/mindsets-tools-and-terminology-of-experience-design-7c25befd439e.
