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Shaping things
One of the most common aspects among those of us who work in Interaction Design or User Experience is that we are fascinated by science fiction. What I hadn't been able to corroborate is that the attraction was reciprocated by the authors of the genre.
At Shaping Things, Bruce Sterling He confesses his fascination with design and how, despite his practical ignorance of the discipline, he is able to fully understand the decision-making processes of a designer. Sterling calls this book a “pamphlet” (145 pages), yet it is not an inflammatory manifesto, but a great synthesis of design theory and speculation about its future.
From the following classification of objects:
- Artefactsartificial, hand-made objects, which are used with the hands and are driven by muscle.
- Machines: artefacts complex and precise, made up of many moving parts that are not powered by animal or human energy sources.
- Products: objects widely distributed, available on the market, anonymous and uniformly produced in large quantities, with a planned division of labour, etc.
- Gizmoshighly unstable, alterable by the user, with multiple functions, programmable and short-lived (a mobile phone, a navigator...).
- Spimes: manufactured objects with overwhelmingly extensive and rich supporting information. They begin and end with data, designed on screens, manufactured with digital media.
- BiotsThe entities of the not too distant future that will be both object and person at the same time. They will shape their own form.
With this artillery, Sterling deploys all his cyberpunk guru's imagination to anticipate the future of our profession. A design book written by a «designer of the future» (a science fiction author), and a book both designed and laid out in a special way, as if it were a presentation, full of connections between words, highlighted concepts and explanatory graphics.
In short, a book that may help you rethink your profession, or simply evoke ideas about the future that lies ahead.