John Thackara
2006
Director, Doors of Perception
A big barrier is thinking there are big answers. Once you start to think the answers will be lots of small ones, then you can think they all exist.
A lot of people here share my anxiety about creating barriers. It is ridiculous to be at Aspen talking about poverty, but we live in a ridiculous world. It’s a perceivable change in the world that people are feeling lonely and sad, so they want to help others to make themselves feel better. Does development mean solving UN goals? A frequent criticsim about UN goals is that they’re all about problems, and nothing about homegrown solutions. A poor person who is hungry may have social networks, or community support. We tend to focus on the problem, rather than on looking after the good things and protecting what we have.
That’s true in design too. The idea that a designer can leave something alone and not change it, is not yet in the system. In 1993, we started Doors of Perception, when people were talking about what technology could do, but not what it was for. I’ve now understood it’s not for me to answer, the people who are going to use the product should decide how it's designed. The problem is that you have different people designing and using the product. If someone is described as a ‘user’ and doesn’t have a name, it’s a problem. How to design with people, as opposed to design for people, is what interests me.
John was interviewed at the Aspen Design Summit.
A big barrier is thinking there are big answers. Once you start to think the answers will be lots of small ones, then you can think they all exist.
A lot of people here share my anxiety about creating barriers. It is ridiculous to be at Aspen talking about poverty, but we live in a ridiculous world. It’s a perceivable change in the world that people are feeling lonely and sad, so they want to help others to make themselves feel better. Does development mean solving UN goals? A frequent criticsim about UN goals is that they’re all about problems, and nothing about homegrown solutions. A poor person who is hungry may have social networks, or community support. We tend to focus on the problem, rather than on looking after the good things and protecting what we have.
That’s true in design too. The idea that a designer can leave something alone and not change it, is not yet in the system. In 1993, we started Doors of Perception, when people were talking about what technology could do, but not what it was for. I’ve now understood it’s not for me to answer, the people who are going to use the product should decide how it's designed. The problem is that you have different people designing and using the product. If someone is described as a ‘user’ and doesn’t have a name, it’s a problem. How to design with people, as opposed to design for people, is what interests me.
John was interviewed at the Aspen Design Summit.
