I believe that one of the most significant developments in systems thinking is the recognition that human beings can never see or experience a system, yet we know that our lives are so strongly influenced by systems and environments of our own making and by those that nature provides … We can never see or experience this totality. We can only experience our personal pathway through a system” (Richard Buchanan, Design Research and the New Learning, p. 12).

Albert Speer’s work, Inside the Third Reich, is a memoir of his life as an integral participant of the Nazi system. Speer was remorseful following WWII and served 20 years in prison. He had much time to think about the pathway he chose as a young man and found himself writing the memoir to discover why he did the things he did.

The film, Finding Forrester, ends with Sean Connery’s character’s (William Forrester) realization of the need for true friendship and meaning in life. Forrester, a one time Pulitzer prize winner who only published one book before leading a reclusive life, finds inspiration through an unexpected friendship and the film ends with a quick glimpse of a second book drafted on the deceased writer’s table.

I’m fascinated by the phenomenon of not being able to experience a system but being able to look back later and having one’s experience make sense – that in some stories, “things happen for a reason.” This is a common theme in spiritual realities. For example, an autobiography I just finished is titled, God In the Shadows, where the author shares about his struggles as a young person and how he came to know God on a hospital bed following an unsuccessful suicide attempt. Since then, Ravi Zacharias has led a rich life, impacting many people all over the world. At rocky moments in his life, he did not understand the “big picture,” but in retrospect, he claims to have had providential guidance all along – hence, God in the shadows. The Book of Esther in the Scriptures is also well know for this form of detached guidance where the God of the Hebrews is never mentioned (as in other Books) but is quietly overseeing His people.

One of my favorite poems is “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” by John Donne. When the speaker tries to console the love he is leaving behind, he assures her that their love is not the superficial love that many in the world experience – instead, he says to look to the planets as a metaphors of their love. The “movement of the spheres” is not something you can see or even experience, but it is something more powerful than the things we can see or experience through our senses. He ends with the metaphor of the compass (drafting tool) where one leg of the compass (likens to her constant love) must stay while the other leg moves. But what is unseen on the final paper is a manifestation of an activity – the process of separating the tool’s legs so that the legs lean on each other which is needed to create the ultimate circle (symbol of perfection and eternity).

What is meant by not being able to experience a system? Perhaps we cannot experience a system, but maybe one can still understand a part of the system once time has passed? What can designers do in an invisible system detached from the senses, especially if one of our core qualities is having a grasp of the senses (polysensorial aesthetics)? How do you preserve the dignity of an individual (and sanctity of “the soul”) when our territory and discussions expands to systems?

Jan Chipchase had a session at CHI 2009 in which he presented some of his work gathered from all over the world. The work is definitely interesting and inspiring.

At one point in his presentation, he said something that got my attention. I think he was asked by a member of the audience about the boundaries between work and life – to which Jan answered, “I’m always on.”

Makes me think about Matt Damon’s character in “The Bourne Identity,” the scene where he walks into a diner and tells the girl how he’s aware of everything – details, like what the waitress is wearing, what it says on the license plate number of one of the cars outside. Takes me back to my teen years when I studied martial arts. After one of our tournaments, while everyone was at a restaurant, someone asked my sensei what the difference is between being disciplined in martial arts and not being disciplined. I remember him saying that after practicing martial arts, he walks into a restaurant or a bar and quickly scans the place to see who is there. He checks to see if he could take out each individual (in case of being attacked) before sitting at a table. I believe the CIA also trains this way – when entering a room, first consider multiple ways of escape and observe/calculate who is in there.

I wonder if this this is the subtle difference between environment and surrounding. I believe it is. If one’s actions are always relevant (coherence in all of life’s activities) – that is, if one is always “on” – this individual may just have a deeper understanding of life than others. Can an individual always be in an environment as opposed to once in a while being in an environment? There must be some underlying purpose to his/her life to be in such an environment.

This is one of the questions of philosophy. How can we have unity despite all of life’s diverse fragments?

“The hypertrophy of information likewise trends to interfere with our enjoyment in the repetition of a work. For the presence of information as a factor in literature has enabled writers to rely greatly upon ignorance as a factor in appeal. Thus, they will relieve a reader’s ignorance about a certain mountain in Tibet, but when they have done so they will have less to ‘tell’ him [or her] at a second reading. Surprise and suspense are the major devices for the utilization of ignorance (the psychology of information), for when they are depended upon, the reader’s interest in the work is based primarily upon his [or her] ignorance of its outcome.” Kenneth Burke, Counter-Statement (1931; Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968), 145.

As Richard Saul Wurman poignantly points out in Information Anxiety, “A weekday edition of The New York Times contains more information than the average person was likely to come across in a lifetime in 17th century England.” It has become a part of contemporary life (at least for me) to struggle between getting information and being in-the-know and shunning information altogether. Soren Gordhamer, an expert on the over-stressed and over-connected, and author of the forthcoming Wisdom 2.0: Ancient Secrets for the Creative and Constantly Connected, points out a reality with which many of us can identify,

“We reply to someone we don’t know on Facebook, and we won’t even look at the cashier at the grocery because we’re too busy typing text messages on our phones … Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Zen poet, says the most valuable gift you can give someone is your attention. The danger with this new technology is you can become less available to your children, friends and partners in your real-life world.”

Where has subtlety gone? While everyone is rushing to package information in better forms geared towards various audiences, where is “ignorance as a factor in appeal”? Instead of pushing the “right” information to the “right” audience at the “right” moment, there may be great[er] value in suspension of information. One of the great pleasures of reading a well written book or even getting to know someone is learning to wonder about and play with the subtleties in content and form. For example, aside from some utilitarian apps on an iPhone, why are most apps never used the second time around? Perhaps we need more exploration on holding back information – suspension and subtlety, not necessarily predictable and obvious. Instead of primarily seeking the useful and usable, a little emphasis on mental/emotional gymnastics couldn’t hurt.

Teresa M. Amabile & Mukti Khaire wrote an interesting article for October 2008’s HBR titled “Creativity and the Role of the Leader.”

To answer the question, “How can organizations foster a culture of creativity?” they propose 6 guidelines. One of them is open the organization to diverse perspectives. When they discuss enhancing diversity, they state three main points:

1. Innovation is more likely when people with different backgrounds/disciplines participate.
2. Open-source innovation is relevant today and may very well be the “future of innovation.”
3. Diversity within an individual enhances creativity.

It’s the last point that I’m interested in. There has been a study of individuals and how their diverse identity can enhance creativity (Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks and Fiona Lee from Univ. of Michigan, and Chi-Ying Cheng of Columbia Univ.). Here is an excerpt from the HBR article:

Their reserach (Sanchez-Burks, Lee, Cheng’s) focuses on people who have multiple social identities, such as people who are both Asian and American, or who are both women and engineers. Social identities often have distinct knowledge associated with them, and to the extent an individual is comfortable integrating multiple identities, his or her knowledge sets can combine productively. Indeed, through two experiments, these researchers found that people with higher levels of “identity integration” display higher levels of creativity when problems require that they draw on their different realms of knowledge. (One experiment asked Asian Americans to invent new forms of Asian American fusion cuisine, and the other asked female engineers to imagine new features for a cell phone for women.) This research sparked a great deal of personal interest and has implications for management. If managers cause people to suppress parts of their identity, they limit potentially valuable sources of creativity. If managers can encourage identity integration – think of female engineers working in an environment where they don’t feel they have to dress like men – people may be more innovative.

It’s interesting to see that finding topics (topoi), or the places to find arguments, is not limited to things in this world as well as ideas in our minds. We can be topics, places of invention. The very nature of being an Asian and an American at the same time … or being an Asian American that can’t be broken down into more fundamental parts, is a place for finding new and interesting actions, feelings, and beliefs (For those who lack internal diversity, the article encourages seeking diverse life experiences).

Add to this a third layer, and what can that look like? For example, what would a car for Asian Americans look like? One part of my thesis deals with football + African + Korean + American (Hines Ward). Jackie Robinson is so powerful and interesting because he brought the concepts of baseball, African, and American together for the first time. Another example I can think of is R & B music which has its roots in a number of things. Even Elvis was an “innovation” or brought forth “innovation” because he was a fusion of Caucasian teen + Rock ‘n Roll.

As stated at the end of the quote above, there is a way to enhance creativity (and perhaps much more, such as culture) by simply understanding a subaltern culture – such as women engineers in an environment that understand them. A case I can think of where the people in charge took this to heart is found at the end of Malcolm Gladwell’s bestseller, Blink. For years, many orchestras conducted open auditions which resulted in an overwhelming selection of male performers. But in the 1980s, orchestras, as Gladwell writes, “started putting up screens in audition rooms, so that the committee could no longer see the person auditioning. And immediately — immediately! — orchestras started hiring women.” As in this example, organizational change does not have to be a long and strenuous process.

I think I have to think a bit more about management’s role in developing creativity.
From personal experience, I do know that it can kill creativity. There must be a way for management to enhance it or design for it …

Just spent the afternoon reading and had a few random thoughts:

1. A THOUGHT ON GOING TO THE SOURCE

The origin or primary source of something is very important. Hence, knowing the arts (what guides one’s thinking) is just as important than trying to learn all the methodologies that one can choose from to understand a specific subject matter. It’s like having a framework.

Some examples:

• When looking for concepts for my thesis, I came upon “assimilation/integration” as a possible process in which culture takes shape. This came from a reading of a book on Asian American cultural politics. I was also vaguely familiar with Raymond Williams. However, Dick’s suggestion to go to the source of both authors’ inspiration, Antonio Gramsci, provided a greater insight into a more fundamental concept – “hegemony,” a complex yet fascinating topic. [download thesis]
• Donald Schon’s “designerly ways of knowing, thinking, and acting” = repackaging of John Dewey’s thoughts on “Having an Experience.”
• Herb Simon’s thoughts on the artificial echo Aristotle’s thoughts on poetics.
• Thoughts around “service design” started over a hundred years ago (ex. Kodak’s “You press the button, we do the rest“).

2. A THOUGHT ON DESIGNING PRACTICE & DESIGNING MANAGEMENT

Forlizzi writes that “Participatory Design” and “Experience Prototyping” are attitudinal rather than procedural/prescriptive methods [by Forlizzi]. Is this the same way “attitude” is used by Boland & Collopy when they describe design attitude v. decision attitude in Managing as Designing? [see previous post]

Forlizzi writes, “… the Product Ecology approach involves doing fieldwork over an extended period of time” in her article to show that a comprehensive understanding of people takes time. This is an important point about design research.

However in the context of the professional world, this is not as easy to implement. Due to constraints, such as budget issues, there’s a disconnect in taking our thoughts towards action. Perhaps designing management, with a similar attitude, may help in bridging the gap between what we would like to have done to what we can get done in our organizations.

3. A THOUGHT ON USER NEEDS

A lot of people talk about being obsessed with finding and identifying user needs. When new products create new habits (ex. we need toothpaste to support the activity of brushing our teeth but this is a 20th century product that didn’t exist in, say, the 15th century), have we created a new “need” or is this something that’s been a latent need in individuals all along? If this is an example of a latent need, is there an infinite amount of needs we can design for? Probably not. Or maybe there are certain core needs that can be addressed differently with the changing times. Hmm. [see previous post on habits]

I sketched a diagram several months ago but never got to revisit it. It was after hearing a discussion on the radio of what it is to be an American. I think it was a discussion on whether Barack Obama or John McCain was the more “American” of the two. That got me thinking about the general question of who/what is an American? So I made the following diagram:

An American can be thought of in one of the following 4 buckets:

1. ENERGY

An American is someone who contributes to the United States through his/her energy. It’s a view that is all about production. A good example of this view is Rosie the Riveter. Henry Ford and Fredrick Taylor’s ability to harness human energy may be one of the reasons why Americans are who they are today.

2. POWER/CONTROL/WILL

An American is someone who is able to align the masses. One of my favorite historical moments is when Jesse Owens participated in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Albert Speer (Hitler’s designer gone awry) once said:

“Each of the German victories and there were a surprising number of these made him (Hitler) happy, but he was highly annoyed by the series of triumphs by the marvelous colored American runner, Jesse Owens.”

In this bucket, the experiences of men (the way people think and feel) are given much weight. This is the place in the “Cross of Pain” where various views are contested (i.e. liberal v. conservative), where one contemplates about what the American Dream might mean (i.e. “Is anyone/anything hindering me from achieving the American Dream?”), and where recognizable leaders become possessions to the American who finds personal meaning in various cultural/societal/political agents.

3. ACTION

An American is someone who acts with the right/proper character in his/her environment. Have you ever heard the phrase, “he acts like an American”? This might not mean much to some people, but I remember my grandparents telling me that when they were in the Korean War, some of their fondest recollections are of American G.I.’s giving them candy bars or some U.N. sponsored cornbread. In some ways, an American is the character in Norman Rockwell’s vignettes of America.

What does it mean to act American? Although many people complain about the rest of the world not liking Americans, some of the noblest and kindest people in history have been Americans. From “Southern hospitality” to American volunteers helping out in third-world countries, it is this spirit of service that I’m pointing out in this bucket. The firemen, law enforcement, military, as well as the neighbor who is willing to let you borrow an egg when they’re out of the house are all American. 9/11 saw many Americans come together through their actions.

4. IDEA

Another kind of American is captured by Edward Everett Hale in his short story, The Man Without a Country. It’s a fiction story about a man who hates America and is sentenced to never set foot on U.S. soil ever again. He is to be transported from one Navy ship to another and is never to have any updates about the U.S. Although unrepentant at first, as the years go by, he falls in love with America only to utter the words, “here you see, I have a country!” on his deathbed.

In this bucket, America is an idea that is inseparable from the American. Physical distance does not deteriorate that spirit. Think of Nelson Mandela on Robben Island for all those years – he never stopped being a South African. Or of Jesus in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights – he never stopped thinking about his fellow man. An American is someone who hopes and believes in America, the idea.

Afterthoughts

It’s not easy to define an American. And I think that’s constantly changing. For example, it took African Americans over a century to be considered an American. The same with women.

The places seem to constantly shift from one bucket to the other. What does that mean? Do we keep on expanding until we reach a threshold where anyone can become an American? Or as some of the buckets show, sometimes, being an American does not necessarily mean that it is about the passports and legal documents (by no means is this a reference the the latest controversy surrounding Barack Obama). For example, Edward Hale’s short story came out during the Civil War when people didn’t even know if there was going to be an official United States of America after the smoke from the artillary finally cleared. These are hard questions. Hard questions, indeed.

While I was at frog design, I was able to be part of the research and exploratory phases of Project M (or, Project Masiluleke, which stands for “lend a helping hand” in Zulu). Frog is also collaborating with various other organizations.

Using simple mobile technologies like SMS along with home-testing kits, Project M focuses on addressing the AIDS/HIV epidemic in South Africa’s province of KZN (KwaZulu Natal). It is a massive project with a purpose of bringing awareness and information in a country with limited resources and stigmas centered around getting tested for HIV.

To see some of the concepts generated by frog, please go here.

The video of the presentation given by Robert Fabricant and others at Pop!tech 2008:

I found out today that Richard Saul Wurman (creator of L.A.T.C.H., founder of the TED conferences, and renown information architect) is my alumni. He graduated from UPenn back in the late 50’s with a bachelor’s in architecture and a masters in architecture. Though we also share the same undergrad alma mater, I was more interested in his time at PennDesign since I was part of the MArch program before leaving it for CMU’s Interaction Design program. I thought Louis Kahn and Bob Venturi were the last of the “great ones” from Penn’s program and thought the school had lost its touch with a changing world. I don’t know what’s happening there now but Wurman is a pleasant surprise (despite the fact that he graduated in ‘59).

I think of his work relevant in the context of a changing world for two reasons. At the personal level, his contribution to the discipline of Design is relevant today. At CMU, his work was one of the first that I was exposed to and helped me understand information in a different light. Secondly, one of his other projects is very interesting:

Supercities Study - http://192021.org

19.20.21 stands for “19” cities, “20” million people, in the “21st” century is a ”five-year study that will encompass all aspects of the phenomenon of supercities”. The study will cover comparative and statistical analysis of the world’s 19 major cities based on the following subjects: health, education, transportation, demographics, energy consumption, growth patterns, water sources, use and quality, waste management, economics and the cost of living, infrastructure, quality of life and standard of living indices, crime dynamics, calamity risk, culture and art.

Pretty interesting.

Oh, how the Ninja Turtles would be envious of what’s possible today.

I just ordered Domino’s Pizza with my sister-in-law and thought I was going through a typical transaction over the web. After the credit card payment, however, I was brought to this flash-based interface on the confirmation page:

30 Minute Guaranteeing, Dynamic Interface from Dominos.com

While we waited, there was also a “Are you a Republican/Democrat?” poll to interact with.

Usually, once I’ve purchased a product, I leave the computer or close the screen but I’m still here, waiting eagerly to see how my pizza is progressing. They’ve broken it down into 5 easy steps: order placed, prep, bake, box, delivery. And here’s also a nice touch:

Yes, bake that pie, Corine.

What a nice personal touch, adds a nice human element (kinda makes me want to go to Domino’s right now just to see if there’s really a Corine there). But now, the final touch:

Steve is on his way!

Methinks I hear the doorbell. I’m gonna go say hi to Steve and watch the VP debate. What a delightful pizza ordering experience!

Edit on 10/3/08:
Ordering pizza, or buying some other commercial product online, has now become a mundane process. As Goffman would say it, we have a transactional process of “initiation, maintenance, and leave-taking.” It’s the last phase of “leave-taking” that really interests me. In much of life, we greet people, get to know them a bit, and at the end of the day, say goodbye.
Dewey calls his form “conception, development, and fulfillment.” Many times, people will make a purchase and once they give out their credit card, the confirmation page is a just another moment in their day where they transition to another activity and mode of thinking. However, this Dominos pizza tracker took it beyond just a “leave-taking” stage. I actually stayed in Dominos land (Dominos became my environment because I had intent to stay) and we had a type of conversation. I don’t know what I exactly mean by that, but it was something very different from other transactions I’ve had before.

Just saw a job post on Coroflot:

Head of Design for CMU?

It’s going to be hard replacing Dick and Dan =T That’s all I’ve got to say about that.