Can we design a world without boundaries? And if so, do we want to? Many designs enable us to seamlessly maneuver between spaces, contexts and environments (for example: switching mobile cells). However, certain boundaries might be important for us (and sometimes difficult) to maintain (for example: separating home from work). Technology and design can shape our environments and create new boundaries.
How can we design meaningful boundaries? Are there boundaries that we can 'push', or make invisible?
Google is bringing wi-fi to developing countries using balloons. Bill Gates is working towards decreasing the global child mortality rate using mobile technology. Mobile phones have become rapidly adopted by communities who usually don't have access to high-tech services and products. The potential of technology to provide solutions to "Wicked Problems" is right in front of us.
Death, war, social disruption, hunger, underrepresentation, prejudice, malnutrition, poverty… Governments and non-profit organizations are looking towards technology to solve the big problems that afflict our society today.
The rapidly decreasing cost of mobile phones, tablets and even personal computers are expanding the possibilities of technology to be the solution for these problems.
How can technology involve minority groups in politics, public policy and local development?
The emergence of mobile personal devices such as smart phones, and the miniaturization of sensing technology have transformed medicine and personal wellness. Diabetes patients can better manage their blood-glucose (chronic disease management), radiologists can flip through and annotate x-rays from their patient records in their pockets (diagnosis), doctors and patients can view visualizations of medication options and their outcomes that move beyond text and statistics, and consumers can stay physically active (health behavior change) - to name a few. However, health and medical technologies fall short of meeting the users’ needs. Where do current devices and interactions fall short? What hacks and workarounds can we observe? How might we better solve needs in health and medicine by redesigning these systems?
Health goes beyond the individual, it takes friends, family and social support. I invite you join me in thinking about how to design for wellness and medicine!
Even with the amount of time we spend communicating with people at a distance through a screen, face to face communication has not become obsolete and cities are the medium of choice for people to do this. Cities continue to grow in population all over the world. People move to densely populated areas to be inspired, find opportunity, and to be a part of cultural events. Jane Jacobs, an advocate for cities and a critic of urban planning practices that isolated people, described the successful city as a dance that encourages weak connections that inspire new ideas, but also conceded that "Big cities have difficulties in abundance, because they have people in abundance.” One example of how cities have invested in digital infrastructure and policies to help their city run smoother, as well as help their citizens engage with the government and each other comes from the NYC digital Initiative in New York. What can we do here in San Diego?
How can we design applications that enhance the best parts of living in a city while also minimizing some of the disadvantages?
How do cities inspire design? What can we learn from cities that can help us design successful online communities? What applications would only make sense if deployed in a city?
Mobile devices have become pervasive with people increasingly using them in all aspects of their lives. As a result of their size and portability, mobile devices can be kept in someone’s pocket or bag so as to be ready at hand 24/7. While the access to real-time data or information can be extremely beneficial, along with the access to real-time data is a constant stream of information that can fracture one’s attention. How might we design an application to help us filter the types of information that are being sent to us based on our context? Context might mean…
With the rise of AirBnB, ZipCar, Kickstarter and a host of book/bike/car/clothes/material and monetary sharing (crowdfunding, for example), we live in a world where we’re increasingly keen on sharing our resources in exchange for others. You may even have heard of the concept of a time bank -- where instead of saving and storing money, you’re storing time for services (e.g. TaskRabbit) -- and all of this helps reduce over-consumption too.
Documentation and Memory Digital timelines and status updates have predominantly replaced that which might have filled personal journals and photo albums of the past— our personal histories have been digitized, organized, and made chronological. Moreover, these systems have allowed our memory storage to become increasingly culturally embedded, evidenced in such systems as collaborative photo albums that allow audience members to store a unified experience of their time at a music concert. In turn, these social storage systems have ultimately transformed our documentation of history, shaping our narratives into that which may best fit the trending hashtag on Twitter. What are the implications of the colocation of social sharing and documentation? How might we design systems that encourage the most extensive means of memory storage and retrieval (and is this ideal?) Can these systems be extended past remembering our own personal histories and into broader domains of learning?