We are not users: dialogues, diversity, and design

By:

Subrahmanian, Eswaran

Contributor(s):

Publication details: MIT Press, 2020. Massachusetts:Description: xii, 182 p. : ill. ; hb, 22 cmISBN:

9780262043366

Subject(s):

DDC classification:

745.4 SUB

Summary: A call to reclaim and rethink the field of designing as a liberal art where diverse voices come together to shape the material world. We live in a material world of designed artifacts, both digital and analog. We think of ourselves as users; the platforms, devices, or objects provide a service that we can use. But is this really the case? We Are Not Users argues that people cannot be reduced to the entity called “user”; we are not homogenous but diverse. That buzz of dissonance that we hear reflects the difficulty of condensing our diversity into “one size fits all.” This book proposes that a new understanding of design could resolve that dissonance, and issues a call to reclaim and rethink the field of designing as a liberal art where diverse voices come together to shape the material world. The authors envision designing as a dialogue, simultaneously about the individual and the social—an act enriched by diversity of both disciplines and perspectives. The book presents the building blocks of a language that can conceive designing in all its richness, with relevance for both theory and practice. It introduces a theoretical model, terminology, examples, and a framework for bringing together the social, cultural, and political aspects of designing. It will be essential reading for design theorists and for designers in areas ranging from architecture to software design and policymaking.

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Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Call number	Copy number	Status	Date due	Barcode
Books	IIT Gandhinagar General Stacks	General	745.4 SUB (Browse shelf(Opens below))	1	Available		030397

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Previous	745.4 COS Design justice: community-led practices to build the world we need	745.4 NIJ Advanced imagineering: designing innovation as collective creation	745.4 SUB We are not users: dialogues, diversity, and design	745.4 SUB We are not users: dialogues, diversity, and design	745.401 RED Making design theory	745.401 THA Discursive design: critical, speculative, and alternative things	745.40711 LAW Design student's journey: understanding how designers think	Next

Includes bibliographical references and index.

A call to reclaim and rethink the field of designing as a liberal art where diverse voices come together to shape the material world.
We live in a material world of designed artifacts, both digital and analog. We think of ourselves as users; the platforms, devices, or objects provide a service that we can use. But is this really the case? We Are Not Users argues that people cannot be reduced to the entity called “user”; we are not homogenous but diverse. That buzz of dissonance that we hear reflects the difficulty of condensing our diversity into “one size fits all.” This book proposes that a new understanding of design could resolve that dissonance, and issues a call to reclaim and rethink the field of designing as a liberal art where diverse voices come together to shape the material world. The authors envision designing as a dialogue, simultaneously about the individual and the social—an act enriched by diversity of both disciplines and perspectives.

The book presents the building blocks of a language that can conceive designing in all its richness, with relevance for both theory and practice. It introduces a theoretical model, terminology, examples, and a framework for bringing together the social, cultural, and political aspects of designing. It will be essential reading for design theorists and for designers in areas ranging from architecture to software design and policymaking.

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