@scottmatter I prefer non-colonial #design. Co-design (inviting the ”them” for tea to pick their brains) is definitely better than ethnographic design (hiding in the bushes to observe the “them”) but I’d rather non-colonial design where there’s no “us” and “them”; where people have the tools and skills to design for themselves so “we” (privileged designers working at fancy corporations) don’t design for “them” (the people we profit from) but we all design for ourselves and our own communities.
Yes, with you there (though reckon this reflects how participatory practices have been co-opted by orgs that put up those walls between “inside” and “everyone else”). (This may or may not be of interest… think of it as a draft and not some final statement: https://scottmatter.org/blog/for-radical-compassion/)
What I was curious about was how, in collaborative practices, the “in a designer’s mind” part happens?
@scottmatter Saved your link to read later, thanks.
Oh and I was implying that the paper (the board, the sticky notes, what-have-you) are the means we communicate with each other during the design process not how we communicate a finished thing to someone else in an “over the fence” manner. (My view of design is holistic; either everyone involved in the making of something is involved or there’s a problem there.)
I tend to think of the paper and the “between your ears” as parts of a larger whole. Mind, to me (and some of the philosophers whose work I read and try to extend), is different from “brain.”
Not sure if you’ve read Ursula Le Guin’s essay “Telling is Listening” but she uses this great (visual) metaphor to argue that human communication is more like amoeba having sex than like computers transferring data. The listening shapes the telling shapes the listening and so on, and participants in the conversation are reshaped through it. Same with collaborative working, imho.
@scottmatter Hadn’t read that (also popping it on my ever-expanding list, thank you) but yes, indeed, the human mind extends far beyond the brain. And you’re entirely correct that this is fundamental to design. Not just to the process itself but also in determining the character of the things we create and how those things, in turn, shape our reality.
@aral
Also, I’m very interested to see whether we can get beyond the (still very western, modern) ontology that there are individual human beings, with distinct selves, that are the ultimate subject and entity to which we assign rights, and whether we can enact more relational models. I tend to prefer Interbeing (in a Zen Buddhist sense), which also connects in with fun stuff cyberneticians like Bateson and others were getting at.
I've been facing this a lot the more I try to bring my design/dev appettite into real-life, beyond capitalist work - it's hard to equip loved ones with these capacities, even communicating is a struggle...
Any suggestions on how to go about non-colonial design & development?
Ah, and what do you think of the word "decolonial" (actively dismantling colonization) instead of "non-colonial" (avoiding it)?
@aral@scottmatter in my experience, a single design process may indeed shift between various stages and states, sometimes there's a moment for a bold "artistic" statement, sometimes it's time to pick some brains over tea or a beer, sometimes it's time to enable people to take things into their own hands entirely, sometimes you are indeed in a situation of an actual designing community, properly commoning the design process.. And back... dynamic and situative...
@BradRubenstein I find the largest surface areas best for the most complex problems. If you’re mapping out the flow of a telemedicine app, it’s great to have a massive whiteboard and see it all. For anything bite sized, or problem loops, paper will do. ;)
@aral I partly disagree – is does neither happen by mere thinking. Interaction and externalization can be essential beyond communication. (re: external cognition, situatedness).
Creating a new non trivial UI or an software architecture is pretty unproductive (for me at least) when not being able to draw and code.
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