Christina Tran // Writing

*Designing *Writing *Creating *Connecting

A conduit to share delightful links, an attic to store inspiration, a sketchbook for new thoughts, and a soapbox for the occasional rant. A sampling:

AC4D Blog Archive

Reflections, insights, process work, and resources from a year's dive into interaction design for social impact and a new model of social entrepreneurship. Including:

Papers

Designing for Social Change, Summer 2011 (Download the PDF)
Ruby Ku and Christina Tran discuss how interaction design is uniquely suited for tackling 'wicked social problems'. This paper was accepted for 2011's ICID Conference themed "Delight & Responsibility" under the "Social Innovation" area of interest. Ms. Ku presented the paper in Hong Kong in November 2011.

"Typically, social problems are seen as the responsibility of governments and non-profit organizations. Why not design as well? The design discipline is well positioned to apply creative problem-solving toward these “wicked” problems — a “class of social system problems which are ill-formulated, where the information is confusing, where there are many clients and decision makers with conflicting values, and where the ramifications in the whole system are thoroughly confusing” (Buchanan, 1992).

"This paper intends to increase understanding of how interaction design can be used to address broader societal issues. First, we look at how the interaction design discipline, our tools, and our methodologies are uniquely poised to address the “wicked” social problems of today. Next, we present a case study of how students from the Austin Center for Design are using the design process to tackle homelessness in Austin, Texas. To conclude, we examine a new design education pedagogy that approaches social problems by transforming design projects into social enterprises and students into founders."
Designing "With" to Leverage Collective Creative Capital, Sept. 2010 (Download the PDF)
"Designing with" is a relatively new idea in design which encompasses ethnographic research techniques, co-design activities, and collaborating with communities to solve local issues. To understand the differences between designing for and designing with communities--and how those mentalities affect our processes and design outcomes--I compare "designing with" to a movement in theatre called "Theatre of the Oppressed" which seeks to engage the audience as "spect-actors" whose involvement in the production shapes the end result. I also wrote an introduction to this topic for AC4D's blog.
"Obviously, not all designers will gravitate toward [desigining with communities]. It's a whole different beast. If you do go there, you're no longer a traditional designer. Truly designing 'with' means you take on an enlarged role of 'designer-facilitator' or 'co-designer'. Suddenly designer also means social activist, educator, and facilitator on top of the familiar critical thinker, problem solver, researcher, and form maker. True co-design requires:
- Respect
- Trust
- Faith
- Empathy
- Open-mindedness
- Flexibility/Adaptability
- Facilitation Skills
- Educator Skills
"When we reach toward designing 'with', we also aim to inspire change and empowerment among the people we are collaborating with. It's a position that humbles the designer: no you cannot solve the world's problems, but you can collaborate with others to leverage our collective creative capital to put a dent in those same problems."
Technology is Not Neutral, Oct. 2010 (Download the PDF)
What can the Amish teach us about technology?

"Neil Postman argues that when we are constantly bombarded with information in a world without spiritual or intellectual order, we have no framework by which to assess what is believeable, or even what is surprising. In today's world, we put our trust in Science and Technology itself without questioning how that technology affects our lives, our relationships, and our culture.
"The Amish use a spiritual framework that guides how they think about and interact with technology. Looking critically at their framework gives us clues into how technology has changed our culture and offers some possible solutions for how we can assess technology in our own lives. When we start to get a sense of what our culture looks like now, we can start to see how the attributes of the world we live in now (which dictates and is dictated by the types of technology we use) add up to a perfect incubator for phenomenom like cyberbullying.
"The recurrent theme is that while technology can be used for both good and bad (and the judgment of good and bad depends largely on your own worldview), that does not make it neutral. It is changing the world we live in, and the world we live in dictates the need for certain types of new technology. Without reflection and critical discourse about technology, culture, and us, we will get carried away along this wave toward a society that we never intended to create: one that is quicker, more 'connected', and more invasive than is good for us."

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