Final Reflection, Will Johnson
ME120 Final Reflection
Before taking ME120, I had never taken a dedicated ethics of design course. Before ME120, I had never used doodles to enhance my retention. Before ME120, I had never learned about architecture. Before ME120, I hadn't spent a significant amount of time grappling with the many ethical dilemmas faced by businesses or their employees.
Through readings, videos, and guest lectures, ME120 opened my eyes to some of the incredibly nuanced ethical questions that I will face in the coming years, as well as many of the decisions around ethics that businesses have to make on a daily basis. These assignments enlightened me to the ways products are capable of influencing and manipulating my subconscious, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. Through sections and projects, ME120 forced me to sit with these issues, form my own opinions about the matters, and develop a case to write, present, or discuss. I found many of the questions we faced very difficult — sometimes I found my opinions change completely over the course of a 15 minute breakout session with my peers. Other times, these discussions revealed that I did have an opinion deep down even when I thought I couldn’t make up my mind, as I’d catch myself repeatedly backing one side of the argument.
Over the course of the quarter, I learned a large amount of material in a few different disciplines. Personally, the most enlightening subject for me was architecture, a subject I had looked forward to studying for quite awhile. In a discussion with one of the TAs, Luke, I became inspired by the idea of developing a quantitative measure to rank the “functionality” of spaces like homes or offices. We discussed how it can be easy to quantitatively assess how functional a design change is for a Tesla factory, for instance, using output metrics like cost, production, etc, but how arbitrary the outputs can be in other contexts. I became enthralled with the idea of starting a small architecture firm filled with design thinkers to come up with a quantitative measure for function and then pour through every little piece of design in a home or office and develop an open-source guidebook for the most functional space (similarly to The Design of Everyday Things). For example- “this is what makes the perfect faucet, the perfect sink, the perfect kitchen, the perfect apartment layout,” etc.
I did my own research project on Fortnite, the incredibly innovative newest video game released by Epic Games. I thoroughly enjoyed scouring the web for Fortnite vlogs, accounts, reviews, articles, scientific studies, and more. It was tricky but fulfilling to morph all this information into one cohesive, and novel, argument.
In the near, near future, I will have to begin grappling with many of the workplace ethics issues we discussed- I start my full-time job the day after graduation. I feel confidently that the plethora of discussions I had in breakout rooms in sections have helped me to recognize potentially tricky situations, to reflect on the implications of action and inaction, and to act confidently according to my beliefs.
This reflection marks the end of a very abnormal quarter and close to my college experience that I never could have anticipated. Despite the unpredictable chaos that defined this quarter, I had a very enjoyable experience in ME120, and I am incredibly grateful for the level of understanding and empathy by the entire teaching team. Thank you all for an awesome quarter!
