My discipline, anthropology, is not seen as a “growth" discipline, and departments are being closed down. But the world needs Anthropology and Anthropologists now more than ever!
Here are my 8 reasons for this:
POSSIBILITIES
At a time of polycrisis, when the destructive fallouts of capitalist modernity are ever more apparent, anthropology highlights that there are myriad alternative ways of thinking and living; that there is so much to learn from other peoples in the world. 1/n
The most significant and valuable through it all has been the values, theory, and methods from my years explicitly learning / training / practicing anthropology. I wish more (any!) of my undergrad and postgrad students could deep dive in anthro at my university, but it doesn’t exist here as a discipline, degree, or department.
Join us and The NYC Office of Technology and Innovation's Open Data Team for NYC School of Data, #NYC's #civictech conference, with sessions unpacking #opendata#servicedesign#PublicInterestTech. We'll have panels, workshops, classes, and more!
Sat, 3/23, at CUNY School of Law 📆
bit.ly/sodata24-tickets 🎟️
I've already said this before but I'll say it again...
One change I'd like to see in the World Wide Web, is the emergence of websites that can't be accessed 24 hours a day.
Maybe that's a website that's only available from 9-5 each day.
Or maybe it's a web forum that you can only post on for a one hour period every week.
Too much UX design is about pushing people to stay on websites as long as possible.
I won't need to tell you that this obviously encourages unhealthy behaviour from the people using a web service but also...
Also, it means that if a web service goes down at any time of day or night, some poor bastard has to stop whatever they are doing and spend an indeterminate amount of time trying to fix it while the whole entire userbase cries murder.
Maybe, just maybe, we can set boundaries.
Maybe an admin doesn't need to be on call at any time of day or night.
Maybe that thing that you really want to post at 3am can wait until the morning (at which point you might end up being glad that you didn't post it).
powers of ten for interface design: zooming out from a simple button to our planet, this animation introduces the central concerns of #InterfaceDesign – as taught at #FHPotsdam – and sneaks in a few easter eggs and historical references along the way.
OK, so got an online design jam coming up 16th-18th November, exploring intersection of design justice, community centred/civic service design and GLAM data.
Sound interesting? Know people who'd be interested?
In this article, Final call, I take the trivial incident of getting on a plane and use it to exemplify the impact of poor service design.
For all the wonderful things we design and create, the end result is far too often less than wonderful - and through out experiences we're being conditioned to expect that.
The latest episode of the Power of Ten #podcast is live with my guest Kate Tarling, a service leader author of The Service Organization, which I think is the best, most realistic and practical book about the reality of the organisational change #ServiceDesign entails.
I really enjoyed our conversation and we could have gone on for a lot longer. I hope you enjoy it too.
No need to wreck the planet with my business travel more than the absolute possible minimum.
Saving between 50% to 90% of emissions*, my longest-ever one-day train ride comes to an end: Berlin to Edinburgh, door-to-door, in slightly over 19 hours—just in time for the ‘#ServiceDesign in #Government’ conference.
people who freelance, do you have your own limited company, use an umbrella company? Other? Where are good places to find design, interaction design, service design contracts? Any other tips? #ux#serviceDesign#interactionDesign
Can't believe I've just done this!
In the final report of my latest design research for a cultural organisation I've just put it loud an clear: if you are really concerned about your users, you don't need this new product, because, as usual, your users' unsatisfaction has some deeper and more complex roots, that, no, cannot be address with another shiny digital product.
We’re running ‘Introduction to service design in Government’ training course again in October.
It's an 10 hour course - 4 x 2.5 hour sessions over 4 days. We will run it fully remote (online).
This course is relevant for designers, researchers, product people, policy people, delivery people, BAs, data, developers and technologists - anyone working in digital products and services in Government. #ServiceDesign#GovDesign
Actually doing this stuff is hard. Government services are often not joined up even within a single department let alone crossing department boundaries. But this is the work.
Hello, here your Thursday's regular appointment with Alx's rants on her #ServiceDesign course.
Today's class started with 'customers expectations' and how we have become more and more demanding consumers. Ofc, no mention on how commercial services are in reality designed to lock customers in an evil journey of falsely created expectations that actually increase customers self-entitlement, because selfish people are the ones that spend more money.
It's Thursday and as I am again stuck in this #ServiceDesign course, I spare you another rant but here is just a silly toot that I need for channelling my frustration in having paid almost £600 of my funding for a course that is really adding NOTHING to my knowledge (and having very very debatable position on service design).
The fact that I will have a certification spendable on the horrible precarious design job market is not making me feeling better.
Signing up for membership at the local swimming pool. Staff member takes all my details and types them into a computer. Then copies them by hand on to a form, for me to sign.
"Why do you have to do it that way?" I ask.
"The new system," she sighs. "We have to hand-write all your details on a paper form, get you to sign it, scan it back into the computer, then shred the paper form."