the

I n S u mm a r y

point?
This text has defined Interaction Design in a way that emphasizes
the intellectual and cultural facets of the discipline. It has
discussed the role that language, argument, and rhetoric
play in the design of products, services, and systems. This
idea of language is extended to poetry, and the text has
introduced the idea of a poetic interaction—an interaction
that affects not only the mind and body but also the soul.
The text has also examined the process Interaction
Designers use when they approach complicated problems
related to behavior and time. This process includes structuring
large quantities of data, thinking about users, and attempt-
ing to support human behavior as it unfolds over time.
The text has introduced the idea of Interaction Design as
an integral facet of emerging culture that is often related to but
inherently separate from the traditional business development
process. Interaction Design, when successful, is positioned as
a critical component of complex problem solving, not as some
ancillary service that is called in at the end of a project.
114 Thoughts on Interaction Design
And finally, the text has prescribed a purposeful extrac-
tion of Interaction Design from the confines of business to
leverage the design process for social, political, and economic
problem solving. Instead of developing websites and toasters,
imagine what would happen if leading designers focused their
design efforts on problems of a social scope. Consider the
application of intellectual, methodical processes of design in
the context of politics, or government. Could the economic
stability of the United States or the social welfare of a develop-
ing country be considered design problems of a large scale?
Designer Milton Glaser has publicly declared that “Good
design is good citizenship.”85 Consider what it means to be a
citizen, good or not. The word implies an acknowledgment of
others, of cultures, and of the social and political environment in
which our creations will live. This negates the ego and hubris for
hubris’ sake that has tainted product design for the past decade.
Artists frequently use their work to comment on political,
socioeconomic, and cultural issues. Art has been used as a
method of understanding the nuances of culture during a specific
time frame in history. As design is often described as a form
of art, design solutions can be thought of as windows into the
world of culture. These solutions often provide a glimpse of the
value system present within a specific time period. The growing
application of design within fields of branding, media, and mass
marketing demonstrate an underlying consumer-based (and
highly commercially driven) path through the information age.
85 In Stephen Heller’s Citizen Designer, Allworth Press, 2003
 Maurizio Vitta discusses this material culture in his text The
Meaning of Design. He explains that cultural expectations are
placed on a designer. These expectations are generally thought
of as making life better (or at least making life prettier) but are
frequently convoluted through issues of aesthetics or brand vi-
sualization. But the culture of objects is of central importance to
understanding the culture of design. The objects themselves are
embedded with a deep social significance and become the sign of
philosophical and ideological resonance. As we consume, we in
fact signify to ourselves and to the world around ourselves a par-
ticular value system. This becomes dramatically magnified when
we consider the number of items that we have at our disposal to
choose from. Essentially, the consumer can signify anything he
wants by selecting appropriate goods, services, and systems. As
these begin to lose their functional resonance and importance,
the primary essence of a design becomes its ability to transfer
language to a consumer. What something does seems to have
become much less important than what it shows. In fact, the
designer does create culture. He provides options, and through
the signification process of these objects, a culture is established.
Vitta explains, “On the one hand, indeed, in a reflected
manner, [the designers] enjoy the same central role as that
of the objects they design; on the other hand, their cul-
tural character, although endowed with great prestige
today, runs the risk of taking on the fragility and flimsiness
Pa r t 2 | C u lt u r e & R e s p o n s i b i l i t y
of designed objects themselves.”86 Design is transient.
The culture we have helped create has as much attention
deficit disorder as those participating in the culture.
It’s now time to extract design from the confines of business
and allow it to grow on its own. Positioned as social entrepre-
neurship, social innovation, or the new design, designers are fun-
damental in structuring a world worth living in. Human behavior
is innately poetic; it is natural and thus resonates poetic in the
same way as does a flower, or a bird, or a tree. It is through our
own design of objects, services, and systems that we may have
disturbed the poetry. A focus on technology or aesthetics alone
creates a world of ideas that often seems discretely disconnected
from humanity. Through the combination of technology, aesthet-
ics, and humanity, we will find a world of Interaction Design.
And Interaction Design, as the study of dialogue between people
and things, will bring harmony to technological advancement.
86 Maurizio Vitta, The meaning of Design. In Victor Margolin’s
Design Discourse, University of Chicago Press, 1989.
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