The power of design | JD Hooge | TEDxPortland

[Applause] [Music] no man cried three times already today I cried at the drums earlier Jimi Hendrix's nephew I heard holy Sh yeah my wife and I have three amazing humans at home there's a lot of superhero conversation happening around our dinner table so it's not infrequent that I get asked the question dad what's your superpower I typically choose something like x-ray vision or SuperSpeed on one of these occasions I seriously thought to myself for a minute and I said my superpowers design they look to me like you're a nerd I started lecturing them about design and they tuned me out in about 30 seconds but it's true design really is a superpower like the late great Stan Lee said with this power comes great responsibility this couldn't be more true than in 2019 over the last two decades technology has changed everything news transportation shopping health friendships family a British study found that we check our phones 220 times a day twice as often as we think we do what we want is for technology to empower us but the digital world as we've designed it is dictating the rhythms of our lives and benefiting some more than others technology has changed the daily rhythms of our lives faster than we saw it coming faster than we can realize the consequences I'm here today with a call to action for designers of digital technology who have more power to influence than ever before it's our time to take responsibility for the things we create and the impact that they have on human lives [Music] but first I want to tell you a story of what led me to a life of purpose in design growing up in Kansas in the 80s and 90s skateboarding was my religion back then skating was not widely accepted like it is today there were no skate parks or pools where we live so my friends and I were Street skaters a pack of cigarette smoking misfits hiding from the cops looking for skateable curbs and railings we could bomb our soundtrack was punk post-punk and rap music this is back when hip hop was called rap music to be clear but the music that fueled us was about poverty and boredom and injustice it was infused with metal and reggae and funk it was rich with urgency and substance music was cherished in my household and my father's records sacred I have strong memories of him down in the basement carefully winding and splicing reel-to-reel tapes this is his handwritten catalog of every album he owned Velvet Underground for me the music itself and the album art were like one in the same and I spent hours exploring each one reading the liner notes and studying the art work skateboarding had its very own aesthetic its own ethical code and ideology it was about experimenting making something out of nothing and having a point of view this way of being was embodied visually in in fashion and stickers and board graphics and magazines and as my friends and I were looking for common language and a sense of belonging these symbols these graphic design elements United us design gave us an identity this realization led me to study design in college where my professors shared rich stories and evocative graphics from Russia Holland and Switzerland I learned about designs ability to create conversation and galvanize people around a shared vision when I was introduced to the Bauhaus everything changed for me and I'll tell you why so in the industrial during the Industrial Revolution the Arts and Crafts movement sprung up in Rio and in reaction to the rise of the machine but in post-war Germany a group of idealistic artists and designers embraced modern technology the Bauhaus denounced designers as decorators they created a new unity between art design and technology incorporating materials from industrial manufacturing into household furniture and architecture they emphasized the social function of design stressing affordability and efficiency with materials and vision and visual elements in an era of ornamentation this utopian vision and this simple aesthetic was revolutionary and then I fell under the spell of dieter Rams who spoke of designers as creative engineers his philosophy centered around a less but better essentialism and a responsibility to create products that are more sustainable and less problematic for the environment he said design should not dominate people it should help people but what stole my attention was how his aesthetic and his ethic were aligned he leveraged technology in a purposeful way to create an innovative aesthetic that was centered around human needs these visionary designers opened my eyes I saw design is about cool skate graphics but I started to realize it was much more powerful that design is a responsibility the design shapes our future I burst out of design school with grand plans of changing the world and making a difference and then reality struck and I spent the next 10 years hustling and struggling to make a career jump to 2011 I've just merged my design studio with a small web development shop we spent about a year designing and building a new office space three months after we merge at 10 p.m. on the 4th of July this happened when the firefighters led us back in the office this is what we walked into we were devastated two weeks later we moved into this warehouse and we started rebuilding and over the last eight years our company has evolved time and time again always with an eye towards the future today we're a digital brand and product innovation company employing over 200 creative technologists [Music] we apply our superpowers by solving complex problems for ambitious organizations after 20 years of building brands platforms and experiences if you haven't noticed I really love design it impacts every moment of our lives it makes you feel things it's an incredibly powerful social influencer it helps us navigate complex systems and it shapes the future but right now today we urgently need design and we need it to work for us in our new digital reality there's no shortage of problems to solve the success of technology today is tied to time spent by users as opposed to the benefit it can deliver to humans ex-google ethicist Tristan Harris says we're designing for dopamine it's the race to the bottom of the brainstem to get people's attention there's a rapidly growing awareness that our digital well-being is at risk that our valuable attention is getting hijacked we often talk about the sleek seamless benefits that technology provides us but we don't hear about how new tech is amplifying our biases or how it often makes things better for one community while making them worse for others take for example the challenges at next door they've been rolling out newly designed forms that are attempting to correct an app that has enabled racial profiling by its users or the sexist features in women's health apps like Glo and Eve it's a running joke that it's not hard to spot a fertility tracking app is designed by a man countless examples of blind spots are bubbling to the surface people are waking up of reevaluating their relationships with technology the tech companies which have been shocked by negative publicity are thinking deeply about their role in society and they're looking for new solutions to live up to their responsibilities both Google and Apple have released features for regulating screen time and suppressing notifications they're now competing racing to see who is going to put the human at the center faster and better but we're just rounding the corner and everyone has a role to play engineers consumers journalists policy makers but designers designers are uniquely positioned we're on the inside we are the wolf in sheep's clothing we have domain expertise and we're working on the front lines our knowledge our awareness and our values are baked into every user journey every push notification and every glowing icon that we create this means that designers have the privilege and the burden of wielding more power to influence than ever before it's time for us not to ignore it not to play the victim but to embrace technology and shape it forward going back to dieter Rams it's time for us to leverage technology in a purposeful way so how do we build a future that empowers human needs and champions diverse perspectives their new design frameworks and ethical design toolkits coming out every single day these tools are really encouraging but they will be much more helpful once we address the critical knowledge gaps in our industry I believe that first we must demand that designers become more comprehensively educated we must become students of humans in every aspect and understand the systems of power at play designers need to get out of their comfort zones and expand their knowledge base we know design history typography aesthetics hex colors navigation patterns and responsive grids we need to know world history ethics neuroscience inclusion cognitive bias and systemic inequality ambitious yes I'm not here to talk about easy wins we're talking about reinvention architects need a degree a license too and they follow the strict building codes they have a contract with the public that says they'll look after your welfare web and product design is notoriously DIY it's a Wild West in the tech world dropping out of school to start a company as a badge of honor Pay Pal founder Peter Peter Till's foundation will literally give you $100,000 to drop out of school I took this screenshot from their homepage yesterday but guess what it turns out learning from the past is actually really important seeing many different perspectives is actually really important in order for us to impact [Applause] [Music] in order for us to impact the consequences of our design decisions we must seek understanding of the historical cultural and economic context for our work elevate the curriculums with foundations in ethics and neuroscience build diverse teams that improve collective decision-making and empower individuals within our organizations with the responsibility of leading this charge when the design world saw industrial manufacturing as the beginning of the end the Bauhaus turned the problem into a solution producing incredible new things with glass steel and concrete our raw materials today are data awareness and hindsight it is our time to leverage these resources and use our superpowers for good believe me the tectonics are rattling designers let's not squander this opportunity to learn and evolve to reimagine the design industry and put the human back at the center thank you you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 18,280

Rating: 4.9249148 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Design, Art, Education, Life

Id: kHyx5qjZEN4

Length: 16min 35sec (995 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 12 2019