“Design is not what you think it is, it is much more…”: A Reflective account of understanding flavours of design and HCI
This semester had been truly a roller coaster ride, not least due to submissions and To-Do Lists. Rather, it was emotionally enriching experience as I learnt through new experiences and to some extent I am still processing all of it as I bid goodbye to another great year.
“It is like changing the px value in Javascript to a point when the colour tone looks satisfactory to the team lead who is responsible for the website design.”
This was my perception about design in my undergrad days where I tried looking at design from a purely interface perspective. The RGBs and the Font Size selection was all too overwhelming for me. It was frustrating to say the least and while I admired good design, I also understood that working on a cool design is a matter of extreme patience, iterations and something probably I could never do it right.
This shallow understanding of design was incomplete and as they say half knowledge is dangerous. I am glad to have other views now. All thanks to the great curriculum at IIIT-B which made me aware about the different flavours of design and the very vibrant design community at Bengaluru, India.
In my pursuit of pursuing qualitative research in design and attending online sessions, I was introduced to the domain of Design in the developmental context, or the HCI4D. The idea of looking at design beyond an interface and identify the sociotechnical aspects at play was a fresh take to my otherwise deeply rooted preconceived notions about design. And paper by paper, I traced the ‘discourse’ around ICTD and HCI4D. The thick description based empirical studies that employ qualitative research methods made a great mark in my continued evolution of the word ‘Design’.
“Everything is political, technology is not neutral and the dynamics of the sociocultural must be accounted in technology design.”
And onto this semester: We had a course on “Advanced Human Computer Interaction” which helped me appreciate design in a more nuanced ways. As the title suggests, it introduced us to the advanced concepts in the field of HCI. It was interesting to study different methodologies such as ludic design, and explore speculative design through coursework. To my mind, it opened doors to look at other venues within and outside academia that talk about these concepts.
It was mind boggling for me as I read about important design challenges such as communication ambiguities, fandom, digital nudging and persuasion. I got to look at different applications of these concepts at play in real life context as class peers worked on interesting projects.
Closer to the end of the semester, I also visited a Tech+Art event which had exhibits of design work. This included audio-visual creative art, zines, games, immersive experiences, algorithmic art among others. I feel this was a great way of concluding the course on Advanced HCI as this further broadened my perspective about design. It was so nice to witness work of people from other institutes. Be it Critical media studies or ludic design, each exhibit added something new to the definition of design.
It is over these events, interactions, and coursework that I have realized that Design is much deeper than my initial shallow understanding of it. I use to easily get irritated by frequent changes to be made in any UI project in my undergrad. To a certain extent, this perhaps still exists. However, I am more considerate about the impact of design. And I think I am now able to appreciate the true spirit of design.
To my immature self who once looked at design from an interface level…
“Design is not what you think it is, it is so much more…”
Design is all about expressing the human psyche, communicating ideas, delivering an experience, being a part of creating something exciting! (and the list goes on…As with many other things, the term Design too has several definitions, to each their own!)
This post is a reflective account of studying design with a sociotechnical lens through coursework. If you have ideas to make this better, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @jkabiir9 This self-reflection exercise was a delightful experience and puts me into a good mental space! Thank you for taking the time to read.
