Category: Uncategorized
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Knowing or Understanding
I spent the better part of yesterday and today reflecting on how I would explain discourse analysis to someone now that I’ve attended two classes and read a few introductory texts. I don’t have any more clarity than I did last week at this time. Actually, I think my understanding…
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Discourse Analysis
I’m excited. The first readings for this discourse analysis class were really interesting. I’ve organized some thoughts into the following bullet points in no particular order. Questions and critiques are welcome! I was interested to learn that discourse analysis (like hci and design) is not immune from poor definitions of key…
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Understanding Designing
How can we achieve a deeper understanding of designing? There are many ways to answer that question. We can achieve a deeper understanding by engaging in a design process, by reading about design, by critiquing designs (or designing)… all roads of inquiry lead hopefully to one thing: deeper understanding. Achieving…
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Normativity and Design
Story: During a debate about the future importance of design–but not Designers–an audience member raised her hand. She was a designer from Peru. “I have to interrupt,” she said, “because I sense that you’re ignoring the degree to which design is already happening in a substantive, vibrant way in, for…
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Reflections on an Experience
I urge you to follow this link and play the song in a separate tab while reading the rest of this note… I had an experience last night while sitting in the hotel restaurant/bar at the Scandic Umeå Plaza. I was spending my last night in Umeå with friends, bringing to a…
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Experience Design | Reward Systems
Rewards may be constituents (but they are not key elements) of experience design. Let’s say that experience has a beginning middle and end. In my mind, the reward is simply the end of an experience. It is not necessarily the reason why a person would return to experience an experience several times. In fact,…
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New Research Questions | New Books
I acquired two new books yesterday afternoon. Hooked and Designing for Behavior Change. These are the first books on designing for change I’ve purchased since landing on an interesting (set of) question(s) that I suspect will carry me towards some excellent contributions to the field: What are the keystone attitudes and behaviors…
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Scientific Management | Quantified Self
In Frederick Taylor and the quantified self (a blog post), Nicholas Carr basically pins on the Quantified Self the revitalization of Frederick Taylor‘s scientific management in the workplace. I am suspicious of claims that the Quantified Self movement has driven the private sector interest in tracking its workers day-to-day activities.…
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Some Thoughts About Design
I’ve been thinking about a question put forth by people smarter than me about Design. John Heskett articulates it best: [Why has design] never cohered into a unified profession, such as law, medicine, or architecture, where a license or similar qualification is required to practice…? [1] I’m wondering if an…
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Some Thoughts on Purpose
I’ve been skimming a wonderful article written by Per Galle called Philosophy of Design: An Editorial Introduction. You can find it in Design Issues Volume 23. Put simply, Galle’s agenda is to explain what is the philosophy of design and what it’s good for. The section I’m about to (briefly) rant…
jordan beck, phd 