David Roedl

This essay is about the challenge of making environmental sustainability a focus of HCI research and practice. While environmental concerns have been around for a long time and have been considered important in other design disciplines like architecture and product design, the topic has only recently been recognized in the HCI community. It is also a very complex topic, posing a number of difficult theoretical questions. For example, it demands that we first understand the complex issue of how HCI design is currently impacting the environment. Second, we need to understand how concerns for these impacts can be effectively integrated into the design process. Finally, we need to develop insights and concepts for designing more sustainable interactive products. In this paper I look to the literature of design theory to provide insights into these three problems. Sustainability can and has been considered from many perspectives: political, economic, biological, technical, spiritual. My goal here is to describe my understanding of the issue of sustainability through the lens of design theory. Continue reading ‘Entropy and Ensoulment’

This fun 20 minute video is one the coolest things I’ve seen in a while. Its written and narrated by Annie Leonard and designed by Free Range Studios, who previously produced the popular Meatrix videos. With a delightfully blunt and simple style, Leonard clearly breaks down the complexities of the materials economy. She manages to connect a huge number of important issues. The simple animated sketches work perfectly with the narration. Everyone should watch this.

I am currently reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan’s illuminating account of the industrial food system. The book provides an excellent explanation of where food comes from and the journey it travels before we eat it. What makes the book so powerful is that Pollan really connects all the dots; he manages to examine every piece of a long and complex chain connecting the farmer’s field to our dinner plates. This kind of analysis + synthesis is rare in our modern era as we tend to want to separate issues and deal with them in isolation. Pollan’s writing reveals the contradictory nature of such compartmentalized thinking: Continue reading ‘Food and the design of an industrial system’