The people, place and space newsletter #12
Playgrounds designed for rain, Where did UX go wrong, and Design Council's new systemic design framework
Hey Friends - I can’t believe it’s been a whole year since starting this newsletter. I’ve really enjoyed hunting for those design gems this past 12 months, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading them too. It’s been an interesting month in user centred design and hard to pick from the huge amount of great content published this month…let’s take a look at what’s been going on.😊
I helped pioneer UX design. What I see today disturbs me.
By Jesse James Garrett
Now it can mean anything, or nothing at all. UX now means whatever organizations choose it to mean, for better or worse. For those still fighting the good fight for hearts and minds, influencing how that meaning gets defined is now the heart of the challenge. - Jesse James Garrett
This is a rip roaring article that takes no prisoners. Maybe it’s our fault? Are we - as designers - the ones who have been complacent about selling what the mission of user centred design is all about? It’s a really interesting piece from Jesse, author of “The elements of user experience” that laments how the UX field now finds itself directionless and almost without purpose. A big shout out also to Tanya Snook who coined the term “UX Theatre”.
Beyond net zero: a systemic design approach
by Design Council
Image courtesy of Design Council
You’ll find the Design Council’s “Double diamond” familiar, and now they have evolved the original framework to include systemic design for those working on complex design projects. It includes six principles for systemic design, 4 roles you can play as a designer and various other ways of framing the work you are doing. As systemic design enters more and more designers vernacular, it’s interesting to see these frameworks pop up to aid designers that work in these complex areas. Cat Drew explains a little more about it’s development in this post.
Wetter the better: Gothenburg’s bold plan to be the worlds best rainy city
by Richard Orange, writing for The Guardian
Illustration: Link Arkitektur
“The tourist agency has only wanted to sell pictures of a sunny Gothenburg, even though it rains here nearly 40% of the time,” explains Jens Thoms Ivarsson, the artist and designer hired more than three years ago to develop the project. “What we’re looking at is: how can we use the fact that it rains quite a lot in Gothenburg in a creative way? What if we can turn the rain into an asset for the city?” - Jens Thoms Ivarsson
Sometimes limitations and constraints can help designers create something even more elegant and delightful for their audiences than if they weren’t there. That’s why I love this piece about playgrounds designed to be even more fun in the copious amounts of wet weather they get in Gothenburg - I know my son would love it. 😊 Contrast this with another article from the Guardian about why our cities are built for 6ft tall men.
Other things I’ve been reading
This month I’ve mostly been reading about the tech industries failure to do good research and design, which ends up harming people:
What happens when you don’t consider the audiences using your technology - a cautionary tale from the mountain rescue app “What3Words”
…and from the same site, the disturbing way emotion detection technology can be used to exploit societies most vulnerable.
IDEO’s unceremonious fall from grace has been documented in recent weeks
Googles cavalier attitude towards design means it has designed a dermatology app that doesn’t work on people with darker skin
If you work in design in the public sector, you will love this one. Design of public services can be humbly described as “Boring Magic”
Alan Cooper on how Interaction design is a different kind of design
I lost a good hour meandering through Symbolikon marvelling at the various symbols from around the world that they’ve turned into icons.
How accessibility needs to be “shifted left” along the design timeline - a great read from the BBC UX team.
What I’ve been up to
With things opening up it’s been nice to see more of friends and family - even just going into a shop (that isn’t a supermarket!) feels like an extreme luxury. I even got chance to play a few games with friends, namely Wingspan, Castles of Mad King Ludvig and a new one called Terra Luna. All amazing and highly recommended 🤩
Thanks for all your support - here’s to another year! 🙌