Vinay Venkatraman at CIID/DKDS (see photo credit below)

Worldchanging.org has an insightful interview with interaction designer Vinay Venkatraman on the importance of interaction design in tackling sustainability issues because it actually encourages changes in the way be behave.

Designing new behaviors and beautiful experiences are the core of interaction design practice. This could manifest itself in products but also in systemic thinking around services and its various touch points. Thus, interaction designers are well poised to design for behavioral change, which can have profound impact in the near future.

According the article, in order to further the influence of socially responsible interaction design, Venkatraman is a partner at Copenhagen Institute for Interaction Design (CIID), an institution that harbors a one-year Masters degree program in interaction design as well as a research center and consultancy. He helped initiate the Institute in 2006. The school’s pilot year began in September 2008, in partnership with the Danish Design School (DKDS).

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tobiastoft/ / CC BY 2.0

This is a video produced by Apple in 1988. It’s amazing how visionary it is.

Given the technology landscape in 1988 this takes some incredible imagination and as a user experience practitioner, what I find most surprising is how much the users are at the center and not the technology.

Here’s snapshot of 1988:

• Hit movies were Die Hard and Rain Man
• Seoul hosted the Olympic Games
• Chart toppers were Guns N Roses “Sweet Child ‘O Mine”, George Michael “Faith”
• People were using MS-DOS v4 and Windows was in version 2.x
• Apple IIc+ and Macintosh IIx released
• 5.25 inch “floppies” were still widely used
• The internet was still ARPANET

At a time when computer ownership was not widespread and users were still struggling with MS-DOS command lines to interact with computers, the technology in the video takes a background role in support of the goal of each of the characters. These goals are:

• Author/mother: write a research and write a paper, organize her
• materials and communicate with her kids
• Students: study chemistry and conduct experiments
• Teacher: monitor and guide students
• Architect: create and present designs to client
• Girl with disabilities: make a cake for mom

The video shows the following (yet to be developed) technologies to achieve these goals. It is shocking to see how many of those technologies are now available today. And yet the interactions are still not as natural as in the video:

• Voice commands
• Natural speech recognition
• Gesture recognition
• Video conferencing
• Flat panel display
• Smart agents
• Shared desktop
• Distance/remote learning
• Real-time animation/simulation
• 3D modeling

Today, the video seem comical, but remember it was 1988. I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for the authors to see a future like this one. Can we imagine what it will be like in 2020 let alone 2030?

Compare Apple’s video with a more recent video produced by Intel in 2007. Here it is obvious that the technology plays center stage and the humans are just extras.

The optimism in Apple’s video is commendable. The optimism that we will get technology right – in service of our needs and goals, not the other way round.

Something so simple is so easy to forget.

Design for the other 90%, exhibition curated by the Cooper-Hewitt Museum

At the risk of being called “late to the party”, I post a link to Design For The Other 90%, an exhibition curated by the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in May 2007:

Design for the Other 90% explores a growing movement among designers to design low-cost solutions for this “other 90%.” Through partnerships both local and global, individuals and organizations are finding unique ways to address the basic challenges of survival and progress faced by the world’s poor and marginalized.

Topics include:

• Shelter
• Health
• Water
• Education
• Energy
• Transport

My personal favorite is the Q Drum, which looks a lot like a half-brother of the Hipporoller which I recently learned has the potential to save lives against landmines, since it can be rolled in front of its user. A case of “Saving two lives with one water container”.

The exhibits have now ended, next scheduled for the National Geographic Society Museum, Washington, D.C. for April 28–September 6, 2010.

The blog is still periodically updated with the latest article on Social Changemakers.

IDEO Human-Centered Design Toolkit

IDEO partnered with International Development Enterprises (IDE), Heifer International, International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to create a toolkit for applying Human-Centered Design to inspire new solutions to difficult challenges within communities of need.

Fast Company has the story behind the creation of the toolkit. The toolkit is free and downloadable here.