Designing an Ecological Alexa

I guess the the whole recording was not to interesting, especially the projects that emerged from the workshop. But the part on ecofeminism and eco-feminist design standards ist very rich.

Notes

6:25 Numbers of interaction with voice tech 08:45 relevance of working with VAs / charlotte webb 13:55 diagram of “human” (human centered design) 45:00 numbers on ecological impact 01:49:00 Eco-Feminist Design Standards

01:48:00

Chapters

• intro
• ecofeminism
• feminist internet
• on data and ecology
• lo-tech approach to tech
• 01:48:00 Eco-Feminist Design Standards
• 01:55:00 Presentations of Workshop Projects
• 02:05:45 Panel Diskussion

Eco-Feminist Design Standards

Users: The idea of ‘universal users’ has become very popular in design. It means designing for ‘everyone’, which sounds good, but it can mean that people with specific needsm especially thise that are not currently well served are not considered by designers.

We often make assumptions about user groups, so thorough research about, and direct contact with them is important.

Purpose: Technologies are built for many reasonds, and can havy many possible beneficial or harmful consequences for people and the planet. This toolkit is about encouraging you to design technologies that improce, rather than damage, social, environmental and economic outcomes.

Team Bias: We all come from places and experiences that have shaped our thinking and perspectives, and we tend to unconsciously embed these perspectives in the things that we make. The risk of not reflecting on this is that your design may reinforce negative stereotypes about particular groups of people, which could be harmful to yours users.

Consumption: User Centered Design has focused on a user whi is centered as a consumer. This can encourage execssive consumption and waste. Human needs have been equated with marked needs, at the expense of planetary wellbeing. One of the main drivers of increasing energy consumption is our ‘always online’ culture, driven by a wanting and desire for content online.

Design & Representiation: Design decisions around materials, energy usage and representation can have big environmental impacts.

Invisible Architecture: Building connected devices takes place within a complex, physical ecosystem of data servers, internet cables and exploited human labour.

Conversation Design: If conversation is the primary interface between the human and your design, the dialoque needs to be carefully crafted. This is how the user will decide wether the design is effective.

Purpose: Technologies are built for many reasons, and can have many possible beneficial or harmful consquences for people and the planet. This toolkit is about encouraging you to design technologies that improve, rather than damage, social, environmental and economic outcomes.