29 October 2012

Today’s Plan• new course wiki• essays!• the elephant in the room• discussion on Gilbert et al.’s design

implications for rural users• discussion on challenges from Kennedy et al.• exercise: gender, design & users• BREAK• design activity• wrap up and what is coming next

from Reading Assignment:what about the production aspect of technology?“A great deal of technology is manufactured in the

Global South by workers that are not even paid enough to use the products they produce. You can find gated stairwells in Apple factories so workers will not try to

commit suicide on the premises. The seduction of technology as revolutionizing the way we communicate

overlooks the Western capitalist consumer culture largely embedded in technological consumption. Every time you buy a new macbook or blackberry, one should consider the corporate profit mark-up at the expense of

the labourers producing these products”

On top of a floral motif, zirconia adornments, and a power button with a "pearl-like accent," the "team of female engineers" addressed an often-ignored design flaw (emphasis is ours):"The top casing has been constructed with an elegant and refined gradation with gold trim, and it features a flip latch that can easily open the display—even by users with long fingernails."press release:• 134 words: custom-made "agete" case• 167: female-friendly design choices• 19: the laptop's technical attributes

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/fujitsus-floral-kiss-computer-women-2012-10

DESIGN EXERCISELet’s become designers and play with gender.

Steps:1. Find a partner – maximum 3 per group!2. Discuss product ideas and select one. [5 mins]3. Re-design the product for a different set of users. Determine

projected users and uses, product appearance, technical features/capabilities and 1 marketing idea. [15 minutes]

4. Present to class. [5 minutes per group]

Ideas:• feminine product to masculine product (and vice versa)• genderless product to stereotypically gendered product• stereotypically masculine or feminine product to queer product• urban to rural; inaccessible to accessible

Week Eight: Identity• Carstensen, Tanja. 2009. “Gender Trouble in

Web 2.0: Gender Relations in Social Network Sites, Wikis and Weblogs.” International Journal of Gender, Science and Technology 1(1):105- 127. (M)‐

• Cooper, M. and K. Dzara. 2010. “The Facebook Revolution: LGBT Identity and Activism.” Pp. 100- 112 in ‐ LGBT Identity and Online New Media, edited by Pullen, C. and M. Cooper. New York: Routledge. (M)