The People, Place and Space Newsletter #16
Service literacy, designer burnout and the threat of being replaced by robots
Welcome to a (rather late) November edition of the newsletter. This month I have mostly been trying to get out in the sun whenever possible, as the nights close in and the temperatures drop. Wishing you all a peaceful run-up to the holiday season 😊
Why we need service literacy, now
By Lou Downe
Photo courtesy of Lou Downe
This feels like the next evolution of services thinking - currently you might work in an organisation that confuses products with services, or doesn’t even acknowledge it is a services provider. Before you even get to how to commit to designing good services, sometimes getting to understand what a service is first, is the hardest part. This article is a good complement to Cathy Dutton’s Designing Whole Services.
The real issue we have isn’t a lack of digital literacy, or any other kind of technological literacy, but a profound lack of understanding of services – what they are, how people use them, what they need from them. Service literacy for want of a better phrase.
Can a robot do a designers job?
By Christopher Butler
Image courtesy of Christopher Butler
I gave a talk at UCD Gathering this week about designing the future, and the allure of the shiny, technologically advanced futures organisations get attached too. So I really enjoyed this thought provoking article on how current, emerging technologies just can’t be compared to what a human is capable of. The creativity and lateral thinking abilities required of designers are not replicable by a machine - and that critical, irreplaceable skill is what’s needed to design the right futures for people, not technology.
It’s a fabulous fable of the grandiosity, hubris, and avarice of our technocapitalist culture. But it’s also a perfect object lesson on the automation to AI spectrum and our true standing on it today. We are capable of building really effective automation tools. We are not capable of replicating or replacing humans. There are many other real-world examples of this, from call centers to chat bots, but I’ll assume your own chaotic and frustrating experiences will supply all the evidence you need.
How to survive a design career and avoid burnout
By Carien Moolman
Photo by Luis Villasmil on Unsplash
As we all approach the end of another stressful year of the pandemic, it’s a good time to sit and reflect about where we are and what we’re doing. How do you feel? This is an interesting philosophical look at what is needed to survive as a designer, I especially liked the rocket, crew and trail of destruction metaphor.
To change such an organisation to be Human-Centered requires the destruction of something.
Other thing’s I’ve been reading
Just for fun, I had a good laugh at this ranking of every UK local authority’s logo
The latest project from practitioner stories is a great bit of research on the organisational barriers designers encounter
Get Cat Drew’s recap and summary of the amazing Design for Planet festival, an online conference put on by Design Council (plus links to the recordings)
A really clear, detailed summary of what is coming in WCAG 3.0 (Even if the earliest we can hope for it to be released is 2023)
The Irradiation Illusion, or, why the colour white looks bigger than black in designs
What I’ve been up to
It’s been a month of hustling for me, as the year rapidly draws to a close - hustling on recruitment in the most buoyant design/UX market I’ve ever seen (seriously, what is going on?!), and hustling to get prepared in time to present the keynote at last week’s UCD Gathering. I enjoyed making an appearance and all the other fantastic talks that were shown on the day. I believe recordings can still be purchased/accessed if you want to catch up on any 😊
If I’m honest, I’m really looking forward to some time off over the holidays and reconnecting with family and friends. I’ll be taking some time off from the newsletter over Christmas, so I will see you in the new year! Have a fantastic break everyone ❤️