IXD102:- Wilson Miner – When We Build

 

The DO Lectures - Wilson Miner | How We Build The Products That Shape Us And Our World

After watching When We Build by Wilson Miner, I have a different perspective to the way I had previously been thinking about design. Almost every one has ‘things’ for example, clothes, cars, etc. and we put so much value into the ‘things’ that we have and even though they are just physical items they are also totems, symbols of ourselves, empty vessels that we fill up with the story of us. These totems are constantly changing as our desires and hopes for the future change, the things are how we choose to present ourselves to the world. Everything is an extension of ourselves and they alter the way we think and see the world/ourselves.

We may believe that the things that we create will have no affect on the future or our lives, but the things that we make creates a new environment. It may end up changing the way we live, communicate or even see the world. To quote Wilson Miner “we don’t need to build space shuttles to change our perspective, it’s amazing what we can do with the right tools”. With the right tools anything is possible and can be achieved, if you can dream it you can create it.

We can sometimes take the interaction between humans and computers for granted, especially as a lot of us now cannot remember life before computers and smartphones were everywhere. It’s easy to forget how far the computer has come and how revolutionary it actually is. The things that we choose to surround ourselves with will ultimately decide/shape what we become as a society.

In interaction design, we are not just creating appealing interfaces that will last for only a short time. Instead we are in the process of creating the environment that we will spend most of our time for the rest our lives and that future generation may even use and adapt as when we are gone the only thing left will be what we would have created.  Due to this everything that we create should be created with the intention of it lasting.

Everything in the world is constantly changing, nothing in the world is the exact same as it would have been 100 years ago, it may be similar but it will not be the exact same. We need to be able to adapt, learn and grow because no one can fully know everything there will always be new things to discover, learn  and explore. The world is always changing and the ones that refuse to change believing that they already know everything there is to know will be left behind in a world that no longer exist.

Link to Video.

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