Five Questions with Pete Trainor
Talk Title
Don’t Do Things Better, Do Better Things
Talk Overview
Technology can be this awesome force for good, or it can completely strip away our identity and subjugate us to its whim. My big question with this talk is “how do we stop designing the next version of something that already exists, rather than trying to invent the new version of something better?”… What is better? What is Human Focused Digital? How do we solve genuine societal issues using technology rather than just patching up ‘stuff’ that doesn’t really add a lot of value to people’s lives anyway? Can we use digital to save a life? It’s a chat about what makes us human really…
Why did you agree to speak at WXG?
WXG shares a lot of my ethical code. It wants to talk about the big things in an upfront, honest way and doesn’t pull its punches. Or the small things in a way that doesn’t disrespect them. I love a bit of brain + brawn with my conference choices, so this one really inspires me!
What do you think attendees will get out of your talk?
I’m hoping the audience go away thinking about technology with a slightly different perspective and maybe understand a bit more about it’s awesome potential. We’ll whizz through a digital journey, incorporating the psychological and philosophical fields and through a series of experiments and examples of tech-for-good. I’ll take them back to some of the fundamental questions that drive us all, and leave them asking one really simple question to take back into your jobs. The one question that we (as people) have asked through all times… why?
How did you get into your field?
By accident! Well… not really accident… fluke is probably a better way of describing it. I’m really badly dyslexic (good trait for an author!) and so me and education never really got on that well. I was lucky enough to land an apprenticeship in a design department when I left school in 1995 and a whole bunch of very patient and very talented digital designers trained me, nurtured me and turned me into a designer. It evolved from there as each new tech trend emerged, I found myself in it. The book is really a look back at the last 20 years and everything I’ve learned about how our designs impact our humanity.
Who is your inspiration in the industry?
Yikes. Tough call. I’m probably not a big worshipper of people inside our industry if I’m totally honest and transparent. I tend to bring my influencers into design and technology from outside the industry. For the book I spent a lot of time studying philosophers like Socrates and Aristotle. I’m really inspired by the writing of people like Grayson Perry, whose take on the human condition is pure magic. I really enjoy bringing in influences from the great copywriters and orators like Lee Clow into our work too.
What advice would you give to someone new to the industry?
Don’t do things better, do better things. Don’t get silo’d into a role that tries to confine you to the industry. Look outside the industry constantly and stay insatiably curious. Look inwards at yourself and continuously ask if you’re doing something that is genuinely making an impact or simply adding a lot more layers of confusion into a world that can already be pretty confusing for a lot of people. Create and design for feelings and emotions not business outcomes or KPIs (easier said than done!). I think finally, just enjoy being part of such an awesome industry. It’s a truly epic opportunity.
Pete will be talking at WXG on the 23rd March, 2017
