The Sum of Things
by Sam Watson
COO, contextual rendering
Inscribe: a design framework for more mindful design
Design Intent
What does better look like? For a wound; likely healing. For a public transport system; punctuality (probably). After that, things become hazy. What does better weather look like? Cloudless skies or billowing winds? A better job—is it one that offers higher satisfaction, more free time, or a bigger pay cheque?
It just depends on values. And while there are plenty of things we can experience that are largely out of human control (weather, our genes, the actions of others) there’s a lot we have a say in, too. When it comes to those things—designed things—who’s deciding which values we pursue? Humankind, together, has a big influence, but its voice only offers incidental opportunities for an unsupervised definition of ‘better’. Designers get to direct things in a more active way, but with the influence of often unacknowledged personal biases, this too tends to be largely incidental. The progenitors of a thing—the ones who bring it into existence—have the most explicit say, but even they are swayed by, or beholden to, humanity and design.
Together, over time, these actors have built the world around us through their activity in designed things. They have built a landscape of values, speaking into our own beliefs and attitudes, shaping our experience of everything. Yet, despite the influence these designed things have on the landscape of our lives, the thoughtful pursuit of a better future through them often goes neglected.
“Instead, to design attentive to values—The Sum of Things offers the hope of a positive, lasting design legacy. Through more mindful practice, designers hold a powerful role in shaping new possibilities for the future, founded on the pursuit of a shared ‘better’.”
COO, cross-section, steam pressure building below glass funnel, visualising the process of boiling water.
COO, cross-section, steam pressure pushing water upwards in an engaging user interaction
Bio
I’m a Product Design (honours) graduate from the University of Technology Sydney. Before beginning this degree, I briefly studied Communications in Social Inquiry. From a very privileged position, I had witnessed the dispossession and hardships of refugee friends imprisoned in Villawood Immigration Detention Centre, and thought advocacy was my future. But, I discovered, argument is a slow change-maker. So I moved to design. Still, my passion is somewhere in-between the two; using and communicating the power of design, to change the world for the ‘better’.
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