We Are Not Users Dialogues, Diversity, and Design

A call to reclaim and rethink the field of designing as a liberal art where diverse voices come together to shape the material world. We live in a material world of designed artifacts, both digital and analog. We think of ourselves as users; the platforms, devices, or objects provide a service that...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Subrahmanian, Eswaran, Reich, Yoram, Krishnan, Sruthi
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Cambridge The MIT Press 2020
Series:The MIT Press
Subjects:
and society
architecture
complex social systems
computer science
context-sensitive
design as social process
design for diversity
design history
design management
design philosophy
design science
Design, Industrial and commercial arts, illustration
development studies
Earth Sciences, Geography, Environment, Planning
engineering design
Geography
History of art
human-centred design
humanities
inclusive design
Individual designers or design groups
industrial design
information design
interdisciplinary design
liberal arts
management design
models in design
non-reductionist
participation
Postmodernism
public policy
Regional geography
science
STS
Style qualifiers
Styles (P)
sustainability
technology
technology and culture
technology and society
The Arts
The Arts: treatments and subjects
usability
ISBN:9780262043366, 026204336X, 9780262356473, 0262356473
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:A call to reclaim and rethink the field of designing as a liberal art where diverse voices come together to shape the material world. We live in a material world of designed artifacts, both digital and analog. We think of ourselves as users; the platforms, devices, or objects provide a service that we can use. But is this really the case? We Are Not Users argues that people cannot be reduced to the entity called “user”; we are not homogenous but diverse. That buzz of dissonance that we hear reflects the difficulty of condensing our diversity into “one size fits all.” This book proposes that a new understanding of design could resolve that dissonance, and issues a call to reclaim and rethink the field of designing as a liberal art where diverse voices come together to shape the material world. The authors envision designing as a dialogue, simultaneously about the individual and the social—an act enriched by diversity of both disciplines and perspectives. The book presents the building blocks of a language that can conceive designing in all its richness, with relevance for both theory and practice. It introduces a theoretical model, terminology, examples, and a framework for bringing together the social, cultural, and political aspects of designing. It will be essential reading for design theorists and for designers in areas ranging from architecture to software design and policymaking.
ISBN:9780262043366
026204336X
9780262356473
0262356473
DOI:10.7551/mitpress/11931.001.0001