Reflection on “Designing for the Unintended”
This week we were asked to listen to a podcast out of three options. I chose to listen to the episode “Designing for the Unintended with Jess Majekodunmi.”
The podcast’s guest is Jess Majekodunmi, the director of Human Sciences Studio at Accenture. It starts with an introduction of her career path, whose zig zag and changing roles led to her work now. As I was listening to the podcast I drew out her career path, which you can see below.
She has done a lot of great work across different positions and if you are curious about more, I’d encourage looking at some of her work online.
The podcast itself focuses on “Designing on for the Unintended”, which is can be explained with the idea that for everything that we design in addition to the intended user and uses, there is also the unintended. Every innovation, product, or service will have unintended consequences, users , and uses. It is important that we address the unintended. The guest mentions that this comes into play in the phase where we shape the product. Every idea or project or design has a different start, but it is when we start shaping it that we really have the opportunity to address the unintended.
One example that was brought up is the wheel, where originally it was created for pottery, not transportation. So then even with the unintended uses, there is the malicious and the simply different.
Of course, I think that most designers do not create out of malice or to make the world worse. It is hard to accept that the idea or project you put your all into might have negative impact on the world. One method to give permission to designers to think these bad thoughts is using the Bad Actors thinking exercise, where in addition to the intended users you come up with the unintended users and think about how it might be misused or used differently. It’s a fun way of addressing potentially heavy topics. Two examples were brought up: Eavesdropping Eve and Biased Bert. For fun, I also tried to think of other archetypes and tried to sketch some up in a little graphic sketch.
Among the characters / archetypes, I added:
- Bitter Barney — a hateful person who will hate on anything
- Peter the Political OP — every line will be crossed to manipulate the public
- Shawn the Scammer — everything and everyone is a moneymaking opportunity
- Single Sarah — I will use every opportunity to find a date or potential husband
I had a lot of fun coming up with these and think that personally, it is something I will be including in my designs and thinking in the future.
