Digital social interactions
On designing for humans
What should we work on?
The digital garden
Budding


What should we work on?
I’m a designer. I have spent the most time doing digital design. I went to school for graphic design, but during my Bachelor’s project I realized that I was more interested in design in general, than graphic design specifically. (As I define it, a designer is quite literally a person who has studied making. We study the process of making, but also how to decide what to make. We study attitudes to have when making, and ways to make together.) For everyone except designers, this is a frustrating definition. One day I might write about this more, but for now I want to elaborate on what I think should be thought of when making things.

We should never do negative things. We should at the very least do neutral things. We should mostly do positive things. I would add that we should strive towards doing high-impact positive things.

(To understand what we should spend time doing, we first need to understand the nature of problems.)

We also need to learn about what problems exist. There are countless, which in a way is good news, as there is always something we should spend time doing. (We will never run out of meaning).

Crucially, we need to recognize that problems should be prioritized. (As a side note, it is when you start prioritizing, that your values become apparent to you. To me, solving brand-awareness problems for Klarna is far less important than increasing financial literacy among lower and middle class. Even more important, is ensuring that we still exist on this planet for generations to come, for example by focusing on the climate crisis).

After getting an understanding of the most important problems, we should ask ourselves what problems we have the faculties to put a dent in. While I am at the edge of my seat invested in the outcome of the US presidential election, or the future of the European project, or the continuing research into pandemic prevention, I don’t have enough interest, as much as I’d like to, to spend the time required to end up in a position to contribute meaningfully in any of these fields (besides voting of course).

Other areas, however, I can contribute meaningfully with my interests and skills — like ensuring the inclusive and accessible design of digital platforms that are considered important for normal societal participation, such as media apps and websites, or the digital presence of public institutions.

What I would like to make

Throughout human history, we have been preoccupied with certain questions. Some seem to lack answers, or at least lack tools for determining answers as of now. With time, we developed tools and technologies  (both physical instruments, as well as abstract methods and methodologies), that were fit to answer specific questions. Questions would fit into categories, and individuals would specialize in some categories, forgoing others, because it was more effective to have people think about a few things at once, rather than each individual philosopher thinking their way to their own unifying Theory of Everything. This division of philosophy into discrete domains preoccupied with discovering truths about different things, roughly outlines the divisions of the sciences of today.

Spread across these sciences are lessons that help answer what I consider the most important question of all; what sort of future should we work towards? In this world I find myself as a maker of things. My professional title is a designer.

Here are some thoughts that I have derived from psychology.

Humans are predisposed to want things that they don’t really want. The making of things should account for this, by ensuring that the value of what we make aligns with the genuine wants of humans.

A lot of our human needs live in the word balance.
We have to be entertained, but not so much that it takes away from our lived lives.
We want to indulge, but we don’t want to eat away our health.
We want to belong, but we don’t want to forgo our individuality.
We have to be disciplined and live balanced lives, but we also need space to be our faulty human selves.

In the making of things, we should recognize the need for balance, by making things that promote balance. Also recognize that different people need different corrections in order to live balanced lives. At different times, societies need different impulses as well.

In an overstimulated world, 


Designing for ecology


The making of things is often the remaking of things. As we advance as a species, our capacity to make things has increased immensely, to the point where making new things comes at the direct expense of the stability of our current ecosystems. The making of things should account for this, by limiting the amount of things we do make, and ensuring that they as resource efficient as possible.
Seedling

 
On designing for humans
Humans are predisposed to want things that they don’t really want. The making of things should account for this, by ensuring that the value of what we make aligns with the genuine wants of humans.

A lot of our human needs live in the word balance.
We have to be entertained, but not so much that it takes away from our lived lives.
We want to indulge, but we don’t want to eat away our health.
We want to belong, but we don’t want to forgo our individuality.
We have to be disciplined and live balanced lives, but we also need space to be our faulty human selves.

In the making of things, we should recognize the need for balance. 

At different times, societies need different impulses as well.