Imagine what would happen if the trained and leading Interaction Designers in our world focused their design efforts on problems of a social scope. Consider an interaction design approach to politics, or to government - could the economic stability of the United States be considered an Interaction Design problem of a large scale?

Steven Heller, co-chair of the Masters of Fine Arts Design program at the School of Visual Arts, begins his text Citizen Designer: Perspectives on Design Responsibility by quoting renowned designed Milton Glaser: "Good design is good citizenship." [1] [1] Heller, Steven. Citizen Designer: Perspectives on Design Responsibility. Ed Steven Heller. Watson-Guptill Publications, 2003. p.ix Consider what it means to be a citizen, good or otherwise. The word implies an acknowledgment of others, and of cultures, and of the social and political environment in which our creations will live. This negates the ego and hubris-for-hubris-sake that has tainted product design for the last decade. As Michael Graves signs his name to bubbly intern-designed products sold at Target and Karim Rashid hosts a reality show [2], [2] Rashid, who claims that he "wants to change the world", is judging Made in the USA, a show that takes the common American Idol format and applies it to a mix of design and invention. Variety's review of the show notes that Rashid's "favorite word appears to be 'atrocious.'' If nothing else, that might be the basis for a good drinking game." we are left wondering about the quality of their citizenship. What, exactly, are they contributing?

Artists frequently use their work as an outlet to discuss issues of politics and to comment on socioeconomic problems and issues of culture that may be affecting the world they live in; art is often analyzed in light of politics, and has been used as a method of understanding the nuances of culture during a specific timeframe in history. As Interaction Design can be thought of as a form of art, Interaction Design solutions can be thought of as windows into the world of culture - they often provide a glimpse of the value system present within a specific time period. The growing application of Interaction Design within fields of branding, media and mass marketing demonstrate an underlying consumer-based (and highly commercially driven) path through the information age. Maurizio Vitta discusses this material culture in his text entitled The Meaning of Design. He explains that there are cultural expectations placed on a designer; these expectations are generally thought of as "making life better" (or at least "making life prettier"), but are frequently convoluted through issues of aesthetics or brand visualization. The culture of objects, however, is of central importance to understanding the culture of design; the objects themselves are embedded with a deep social significance and become the sign of philosophical and ideological resonance. As we consume, we in fact signify to ourselves and to the world around ourselves a particular value system. This becomes dramatically magnified when we consider the amount of items that we have at our disposal to choose from; the consumer can, essentially, signify anything they want by selecting appropriate goods, services and systems. These objects begin to lose their functional resonance and importance, and the primary essence of a design is in its ability to transfer language to a consumer. What something does seems to have become much less important than what it shows. The designer does, in fact, create culture; we provide options, and through the signification process of these objects, a culture is established.

Vitta explains that "On the one hand, indeed, in a reflected manner, [the designers] enjoy the same central role as that of the objects they design; on the other hand, their cultural character, although endowed with great prestige today, runs the risk of taking on the fragility and flimsiness of designed objects themselves." [3] [3] Vitta, Maurizio. "The Meaning of Design." Design Discourse: History, Theory, Criticism. Ed Victor Margolin. The University of Chicago Press, 1989. p34 This implies that Vitta sees design as transient; the culture we have helped create has as much attention deficit disorder as those participating in it. Consider the popular inner-city phenomenon of "rims" - thick chrome wheel coverings that can be as large as twenty-six inches in diameter. These after-market accessories usually décor the fresh new Honda Civic or the old and worn Cadillac; the "22s", costing nearly $1000 per wheel, add absolutely no functional value to the vehicle. What's even more interesting is to note that they offer no aesthetic value for the owner, either - the owner obviously can't see the rims as they drive. Thus, they have purchased an item in order to define themselves in the eyes of another; the product has transferred its meaning to the owner, and the owner has become entirely defined by it.

Designers help shape culture; how much, then, can we claim success when things are going well? Conversely, how much are we to blame when things go awry? We can shirk the responsibility and blame the media or the parents; after all, the conglomeration of culture must be shaped by external forces. But if we truly consider the makers of culture, and think critically about the shapers of our society, we find that the designer plays a role of utmost importance in dictating the future. A person buys an item for cost, or utility, or function or style; these items, integrated as a whole, speak of the value structure that the individual claims and integrates into their existence. Consumers often build their world defined by products, and through these products they exhibit a sense of individualism. But the totality of these consumers is culture, and the designer of products is in fact a designer of culture. If we are to claim the victories of cultural resonance, we must also accept the blame and inherent responsibility that comes with such a fundamentally shaping task.

One of the major shifts in culture that is occurring as a result of the "information revolution" is our increased dependency on technology with regard to standard, every day activities. Many view google, or a similar search engine, as an extension of themselves; this reliance on a technical library of information to perform simple tasks creates both huge possibility as well as a troubling view of personal intellectual regression. This dependence has crept in slowly, and now affects the majority of us in a silent and rather immediate fashion. Do you know the cell phone number of your wife or husband? How about your kids? The majority of us tend to program these numbers into our phones and promptly forget about them, as we know we have them readily available at the touch of a button. The same may be true of events, facts and figures that we can find online or in our email; while we have "freed our minds" to consider other things, we may be on a long-term road towards disaster when our dependency gets the best of us and the proxy unit - the cell phone, the internet or our computer - fails us.

Consider a day without digital technology. Can you make it through one day - still completing your major goals for the day - without utilizing digital technology? From waking up to going to work - and your entire job may be, in fact, centered around digital technology - this reliance is on both the technical capabilities but also the ready accessibility we have to information. "Knowledge is power" may be outdated and shortsighted, but the essence of this mantra is true: access to knowledge-provoking data is powerful. We make lists, and take pictures, and pay bills, and learn and live, and all of this causes the fabric of the culture to depend on human-centric information dissemination.

An interesting exercise is to compare your own upbringing with that of a child born in 1990, growing up in a middle class suburb of a great American city. This child, fifteen years old in 2005, has grown up with cell phones, Nintendo, digital music and instant messenger; they don't know of a life without the internet, and there is a strong chance that the majority of their toys - even the most mundane - had a digital component embedded in them. Their formative years included cable television with over a hundred channels, multiple computers in their home, and the ability to access the enormous library of google at a whim. They are connected, pervasively in contact, and to call them "computer savvy" is a strong understatement. This digital upbringing has impacted nearly every aspect of life, and has dramatically changed the skills and cultural capabilities that one can expect to have when graduating from high school. These connected children - now teenagers - can intuit complicated software interfaces and have no fear of digital failure; they understand computing limitations, and almost innately absorb and understand new technology. They approach technology in a fundamentally different way than the generations they succeed; it appears that they simply don't blame themselves when technology fails, and that they deflect a great deal of the cognitive friction that we associate with "high tech."

This comprehension comes at a cost, however; it has been continually argued that this knowledge has been at the expense of the more traditional academic skills, such as reading and writing. Students entering college today are ill-prepared to write an analytically challenging research paper, and have a hard time drawing connections between diverse and seemingly disjoint ideas. According to the fifth annual Reality Check study, a joint project by Public Agenda and Education Week, "Employers and college professors by large majorities nationwide say public high schools are graduating students with just fair or poor skills in writing, grammar and basic math, and most do not consider a high school degree as any guarantee a student has mastered the basics." [4] [4] "What Happened to the Three R's?" Public Agenda. March 5, 2002. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reports an equally grim story: there are over 33 million K-12 students reading at least two grades below level, which is over two thirds of all K-12 students in the United States . The American Diploma Project (ADP) found that "... the high school exit exams that most states require students to pass before they graduate remain far too easy ... most of the exams generally test eighth- or ninth-grade level work." [5] [5] Campbell, Jay, et al. "Trends in Academic Progress" National Center for Education Statistics. August 2000.

The Interaction Designer must attempt to advocate for humanity at all levels; this includes the vocal assessment of what has become a digital and highly disposable culture, one that highlights and educates people in a diverse set of skills at the expense of other, analog skills. Have we inadvertently created a generation of short-attention span computer whizzes - teenagers who can't spell or think but can operate digital technology at lightning speeds? And if we have - is this necessarily bad?

There were 159 million cell phones in use in the United States in 2003 [6]; [6] Bergman, Mike. United States Census Bureau. "U.S. Cell Phone Use Up More Than 300 Percent, Statistical Abstract Reports" December 9, 2004.

[7] Digital Photography Review. "50 million digital cameras sold in 2003" January 26, 2004.

[8] Gibson, Brad. "Apple Posts Profit of $106 Million, 2 Million iPods Sold" The Mac Observer. October 13, 2004.

[9] "Sony sells over 500,000 PSP units in first two days" Mac Daily News. April 7, 2005.

[10] Postman, Neil. Technopoly : The Surrender of Culture to Technology. Vintage, Reprint edition. 1993. most of us own a cellular phone, and many of us own two. We carry digital cameras (more than 50 million were sold in 2003) [7], digital music players (over two million iPods sold in 2004) [8], digital gaming systems (Sony sold over half a million of the Sony PSP in the first two days of the product launch) [9], and even digital keys. Combined with laptops, pagers and the occasional Tomogotchi digital pet, the majority of Americans encounter portable Interaction Design on a daily basis. Neil Postman proposes an interesting addition to education, in an attempt to "fix" this blind dependency on technology; his proposal is interesting in its presence within his primarily anti-technology text Technopoly, but also in the relationship he has created between language and technology. "I should like to propose that, in addition to courses in the philosophy of science, every school - again, from elementary school through college - offer a course in semantics - in the process by which people make meaning." [10] Imagine if students were educated not only in the tools and skills necessary to be good at their jobs - but were also taught to understand, respect and consider the nature of things.

It would be irresponsible to only blame technology, of course; one element can not truly be isolated from the others when discussing issues as complicated as culture. Still, the "gods must be crazy" effect seems to be lightly plaguing those in the modern, technically driven culture of the United States. Technology has been dropped into our lap and we aren't quite sure what to make of it. If the resonance of word, symbols and meanings is ill-conceived by the designer, the consumer is left in quite an awkward position. Technology cannot be the driving force behind our creations; if Interaction Designers are motivated primarily by technology, they have inadvertently become engineers - speaking the language of logic, and valuing efficiency over emotion. Yet technology is our creations, quite often; an interface on a computer is only bits and bytes, and the interface is the product and the medium is the message and the gods certainly are crazy.

Nicholas Negroponte's optimistic view of technology is summarized in the epilogue of his text Being Digital: "Bits are not edible; they cannot stop hunger. Computers are not moral; they cannot resolve complex issues like the rights to life and to death. Being digital, nevertheless, does give much cause for optimism. Like a force of nature, the digital age cannot be denied or stopped. It has four very powerful qualities that will result in its ultimate triumph: decentralizing, globalizing, harmonizing, and empowering." [11] [11] Negroponte, Nicholas. Being Digital. Book on-line. Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. This view of technology as a positive force of change is uplifting and perhaps even accurate; however, it still places digitization at the heart of the discussion of the future, rather than embracing people as the focus of further explorations into connectivity. The "digital age", in fact, cannot be empowering without empowering someone. This optimistic view of empowerment has simply not been realized; conversations of digitization still revert back to a discussion of usability, as if "easily comprehensible" is somehow an investment of power. [12] [12] The literal definition of "empowerment" as displayed in the American Heritage Dictionary, Fourth Edition is "to equip or supply with an ability; enable: 'Computers... empower students to become intellectual explorers'" The internet has not helped ease global tensions relating to religion and politics - it has, perhaps, contributed to more censorship and the ability to spread hate speech. Cell phones have not assisted our culture in being more empathic, but certainly have caused more traffic accidents. And, as Negroponte states, the world wide web has certainly not stopped hunger. The potential, the vision of what this technology can do for humanity, is made understandable only when viewed from another subtly distinct perspective: what does humanity desire technology to do? In fact, the answer may be an embracement of the analog; we require a need for more simplicity, more subtleness, more love and warmth and basic sense of poetry.

John Maeda, a pioneer in creating connections between design and digitization, has created a Simplicity Consortium at the MIT Media Lab in order to investigate the essence of simplicity. The vision statement is itself a poetic view of Interaction Design: "In January 2004 the MIT Media Laboratory initiated a major research agenda focused on SIMPLICITY - a design-oriented program aimed at redefining our relationship with technology in our daily lives. This goes well beyond removing buttons, slimming down screens, and shrinking interfaces to fit into the palms of our hands. It is a radical reexamination of ways to break free from the intimidating complexity of today's technology and the frustration of information overload. It is about inventing a future where less is more. While a certain percentage of the population will always be "gadget geeks" who cannot get enough of complexity and functionality in any electronic device, most of us yearn for a DVD player whose programming is intuitive, an online newspaper that can deliver the stories we want in a quick and easy-to-read format, or a cell phone whose instruction book has fewer than 100 pages. We dream of devices that give us joy rather than feelings of inadequacy." [13] [13] SIMPLICITY Consortium.

To look for simplicity in technology, however, requires a deeper understanding of human wants and needs, and a dramatic departure from the heralding of technological advancements as ends in themselves. Stephen Johnson discusses the lack of the true, deep emotional quality in the popular acceptance of technology: "We're reminded a dozen times each day that the digital revolution will change everything, and yet when we probe deeper to find out what exactly will change under this new regime, all we get are banal reveries of sending faxes from the beach." [14] [14] Johnson, Steven. Interface Culture : How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate. Perseus Books Group, 1999. p213 In order to truly embrace the potentials of digital interactions, we must acknowledge the true richness of human interactions, and utilize a true range of expressions relating to technological implementation. Expressions delve beyond "usable"; when asked how you like your spouse, few of respond that the relationship is "usable." In fact, blatantly "mean" or "hostile" interaction paradigms may be a richer method of communication than the commonly accepted norm of "efficient" or "fool proof." This is not to say that interfaces should be mean; it is simply to imply that interfaces must move beyond the baseline of usability, for the simple fact that usability is boring.

Kasimir Malevich learned to paint in a post-impressionist technique prior to creating a white square on a white canvas; his ultimate goal, to free art from the burden of the object, was embraced only after understanding how to visualize the object in reality. So too did Pablo Picasso master "proper" technique before embracing the abstraction of cubism. Like other artists, these pioneers learned the fundamentals in order to reject them. We must understand usability in order to discuss the rejection of its principles. The naive application of this text would be a blind rejection of all principles related to efficiency; that is not the goal. Instead, the synthesis of usability principles with the other elements of a true user-centered design process are necessary to accurately create complicated Interaction Design solutions.

Thus, it is important to consider not only how we design, but also what we choose to design. Victor Papanek noted in his landmark text that "It is the prime function of the designer to solve problems. My own view is that this means that the designer must also be more sensitive in realizing what problems exist." [15] [15] Papanek, Victor. Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change. Academy Chicago Publishers; 2nd Rev edition, 1985. p133. If Interaction Designers are capable of shaping the poetic experiences of life, it follows that they are also capable of shaping poor experiences - either through lack of skill, poor execution, or by simply selecting silly projects to spend their time on. Consider the value provided by selecting problems as related to social, political or economic stability, and compare this to the design of a consumer-facing online book store. Which has a larger value, and for whom? It is not the intention to argue against the development of poetic experiences for consumption and for consumptive products; however, the Interaction Designer needs to be truly aware of the repercussions of their choice, and to understand that they are, in fact, designing simply by selecting to spend their time within a certain discipline or genre of problem solving.

1. Heller, Steven. Citizen Designer: Perspectives on Design Responsibility. Ed Steven Heller. Watson-Guptill Publications, 2003. p.ix
2. Rashid, who claims that he "wants to change the world", is judging Made in the USA, a show that takes the common American Idol format and applies it to a mix of design and invention. Variety's review of the show notes that Rashid's "favorite word appears to be 'atrocious.'' If nothing else, that might be the basis for a good drinking game." http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117928167?categoryid=32&cs=1
3. Vitta, Maurizio. "The Meaning of Design." Design Discourse: History, Theory, Criticism. Ed Victor Margolin. The University of Chicago Press, 1989. p34
4. "What Happened to the Three R's?." Public Agenda. March 5, 2002. http://www.publicagenda.org/press/press_release_detail.cfm?list=43
5. Campbell, Jay, et al. "Trends in Academic Progress." National Center for Education Statistics. August 2000. http://nces.ed.gov/naep/pdf/main1999/2000469.pdf
6. Bergman, Mike. United States Census Bureau. "U.S. Cell Phone Use Up More Than 300 Percent, Statistical Abstract Reports." December 9, 2004. http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/miscellaneous/003136.html
7. Digital Photography Review. "50 million digital cameras sold in 2003." January 26, 2004. http://www.dpreview.com/news/0401/04012601pmaresearch2003sales.asp
8. Gibson, Brad. "Apple Posts Profit of $106 Million, 2 Million iPods Sold." The Mac Observer. October 13, 2004. http://www.macobserver.com/stockwatch/2004/10/13.1.shtml
9. "Sony sells over 500,000 PSP units in first two days." Mac Daily News. April 7, 2005. http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/5417/
10. Postman, Neil. Technopoly : The Surrender of Culture to Technology. Vintage, Reprint edition. 1993.
11. Negroponte, Nicholas. Being Digital. Book on-line. Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. http://archives.obs-us.com/obs/english/books/nn/bdintro.htm
12. The literal definition of "empowerment" as displayed in the American Heritage Dictionary, Fourth Edition is "to equip or supply with an ability; enable: 'Computers... empower students to become intellectual explorers' ."
13. SIMPLICITY Consortium. http://simplicity.media.mit.edu/vision.html
14. Johnson, Steven. Interface Culture : How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate. Perseus Books Group, 1999. p213
15. Papanek, Victor. Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change. Academy Chicago Publishers; 2nd Rev edition, 1985. p133.