Three signals to the future 003
Three signals to the future 003
Sharing some meaningful reads I have saved through 2022
It’s been a while and this is only the 3rd installment of the series I wanted to do (started in 2021) as ‘Three signals to the future’ where I share resources I find useful and meaningful. LOL! Life has a funny way of putting you into inaction nowadays… Anyway, let’s try this once more.
On sustainable UX
The following article by Sandy Dähnert discusses the concept of sustainable UX design, which refers to minimizing the negative impact and maximizing the positive impact of digital products on the environment and society. Sandy suggests using tools like the Doughnut Tech Diagram and the UN Sustainable Development Goals to analyze sustainability factors. The article also explores sustainable UX research, architecture, design, and communication.
To minimize our footprint we can get creative with low-data components such as icons, illustrations, shapes, forms and colors. Ecologically sustainable UI also counts for optimizing, scaling and compressing our images and videos.
▶︎ Sustainable UX is more than reducing your website‘s footprint — Sandy Dähnert
On ecological debates
Degrowth advocates call for an end to the obsession with economic growth, a reduction in energy use and material throughputs, and a globally just distribution of resources. Left eco-modernists, on the other hand, argue that class struggle, stronger unions, and a parliamentary path to a Green New Deal are the solution. The article by Kai Heron debates those perspectives based on the book Climate Change as Class War, by Mark Huber, pointing out that a complete analysis of US class politics should take into account the impact of imperial predation in the periphery on class interests and struggles in the US. The author criticizes Huber's critique of climate justice politics for not considering this, and for failing to differentiate between income based on wages and capital ownership. The author argues that workers in the Global North benefit from a capitalist system that pits them against their peripheral counterparts and that anti-imperialist politics requires those at the core to reduce their overall consumption.
Instead of seeing capital’s abolition as the unfettering of productive forces, it is better to view it as freeing the world’s producers to choose from a richer and more diverse array of technologies and socio-ecological relations than capitalist industrialization can offer
▶︎ The great unfettering — Kai Heron
On decolonized design pedagogies
Designs of the Oppressed is a course offered by the Design & Oppression network, made up of educators and professionals who reject perpetuating the oppressions studied by Paulo Freire and Augusto Boal in their respective works. The course examines the colonial history of design in Brazil, explores other forms of oppression, and concludes by exploring the potential for design to promote liberation. Guest lectures and discussions by network members will showcase the range of oppressive situations faced by designers in Brazil, as well as advanced pedagogies, theories, and practices for addressing them.