Ben Hammersley: Designing for the New Mind

Описание: DESIGNING FOR THE NEW MIND - Ben Hammersley, Editor-at-Large of Wired, and the British Prime Minister's ambassador to tech city spoke, at this significant session, of how to break the technology orthodoxy of an all white culture of west coast America and develop our own design sensibilities. The facts, as he pointed out, are that most of our technology, gadget and social media is sourced from one part of the world only. The challenge lies in designing things locally or even imaging how they would look if designed locally. The basis for this as pointed out by Hammersley is that, "Our designs show the influence we have grown up with." So while the gadgets of west coast America reflect their culture, any designer should aim at incorporating their own universes in the designs.

He also pointed out that we should not accept any given culture as the ONLY good one. These issues formed a part of the problems he faced while setting up tech city, because everything which formed a part of it was coming from somewhere else. There should be an attempt to break the orthodoxy of Facebook and Apple as leaders in technology design, he suggested, arguing that technology in itself is a culture and value based -- a very recent phenomenon.

The other part of Hammersley's talk focussed on how our minds have evolved alongside our gadgets and how they have become an extension of our souls and brains. He said, "Our brains are becoming entwined with these digital devices, which are designed with values which are not ours". This is also a part of the problem with accepting a value system which is not ours, he said. He also pointed out how our bodies have developed new sensations of its own, a whole new set of sensations which are linked to our devices, which tells us to keep checking our inbox, or chat client. The phone in itself has become an extra part of our brains, and how we unload things onto the device.
Hammersley concluded with the advice that we as designers should examine our own true nature and design for that.

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