It is IXDD (World Interaction Day) today. A day about interaction design and the theme this year is Ethics, Equity, +Responsibility. I have used some of the content from my talk at Accessibility Scotland a few weeks ago to talk about bias in models. The core issue is that we cannot enable equitable spaces if we use tools embedded with consumerism, compliance and control. The 8 minute talk is on Youtube and is captioned.

After a few months of work for the Design Council on Systemic Design Thinking in the Climate Crisis, I am back on a museum wayfinding project. We are about to test a prototype scheme and I need to think about what questions to ask. As with Systemic Design Thinking, there…

Shifting urban speed limits from 30mph to 20mph. There’s technical safety reasons why the shift is happening (to do with injury reduction) but people seem unwilling to take that factual advice and simply view it as government overreach and desire to control them. It’s not the speed that matters to people The thing which interests me is how…

I was invited to speak at Accessibility Scotland last week. Someone had to drop out and they needed a quick replacement. I was glad to help out. I needed to write a new talk quickly tho. I prefer to run workshops to explore problems but I will do talks if…

Long post as I’m back home from visiting my parents (both over 85) and I’m pissed off with banks and their attitudes to customer security. 90 mins on phone trying to get money transferred from one bank account to another for, and with, my father. The main problem I have…

Acuity Design is starting to test new ways of designing and making tactile maps and diagrams. Now we have a ZyChem swell printer it is much easier to run short tests and make prototypes. This test page is about 5 design elements. Title and Key The need for a title and key to…

Why Design for Ritual? This is a post about the design of rituals. I will use a mostly negative framing to start with. This is because I live in the UK and there is new King’s Coronation next Saturday. It is an event lathered in ritual (most of which was invented in the 19th…

The meaning of systemic worries me when talking about #SystemicDesign and I need to broaden it out in a few specific directions for #DesignCouncil #DesignForPlanet workshops over the next two weeks. Systems as traps Design and designers can too often get trapped within systems and processes.

Making change Are you concerned about the climate crisis and want to make a difference? Join one of our upcoming workshops that will equip you with the tools and knowledge to approach the climate crisis from a systemic design perspective. We are currently collaborating with the Design Council in the UK. Alastair…