I will be responding to Principle 8.11 of Ge wang’s Artful Design: Design is the embodied conscience of technology, for technology has no conscience of its own. I love this statement as it really encapsulates the relationship between design and technology as well as the reason I design. I believe with the capabilities of new technology, while possibilities of creating are boundless, the ability to do good is driven by the act of designing with human values in mind.
Indeed, one way we can think of design being an embodied conscience of technology is understanding that design stems from human needs and values. I especially like the idea of connecting design and values as thinking of it in terms of value first, and then thinking of an aesthetic leap to achieve that value: for example, using the idea that social technology should be providing authentic contexts for social participation, and creating an aesthetic leap from that by aiming to “connect familiar strangers”. I really like the use of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to visualize design goals, using the idea that we must think of a design as being based on needs. This is obviously one of many models that capture what needs to design for, but I find it very helpful as a tool in my arsenal. And then, it is valuable to ground these needs in broader values at play here. I think Ocarina is a good example that stems out of the value that music expression benefits a person and that technology can make music more accessible for people to make and play music.
I think this chapter uniquely introduces the idea that design can and should embody categorical values, by treating humans we are designing for as the ends in itself rather than a means to an end: meaning that the end goal is the enhancement of human life and peace, rather than some ulterior motive in which we are using the effect on human life as a way to achieve some other means (ex. Profit).
