Rainbow Unit: Networks Big and Small
4A: Recovering Community: Designing for Social Justice
Background Knowledge Probe
Design
As transitive verb:
- To create, fashion, execute, or construct according to plan
- To conceive and plan out in the mind
- To have as a purpose
- To devise for a specific function or end
As intransitive verb:
- To conceive or execute a plan
- To draw, lay out, or prepare a design
As noun:
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- A particular purpose or intention held in view by an individual or group
- deliberate purposive planning
- A mental project or scheme in which means to an end are laid down
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- A deliberate undercover project or scheme
- Designs plural: aggressive or evil intent — used with on or against>
- A preliminary sketch or outline showing the main features of something to be executed
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- An underlying scheme that governs functioning, developing, or unfolding
- A plan or protocol for carrying out or accomplishing something (such as a scientific experiment); also: the process of preparing this
- The arrangement of elements or details in a product or work of art
- A decorative pattern
- The creative art of executing aesthetic or functional designs
- After reading this definition, put everything aside and pause for several minutes to reflect back on your journey through A Person-Centered Guide to Demystifying Technology. Explore especially the ways you’ve done aspects of design, whether as noun or verb, during this journey.
- When you return, review the titles of each social and technical session within the Orange, Blue, and Rainbow Units. How does this compare to, and further shape, your initial reflections on your journey through this book?
- Now skim the “Introduction to the Book” and the Orange, Blue, and Rainbow Overviews. How do these further shape your initial reflections on your journey through this book?
- With these reflections in mind, take a few minutes to brainstorm and creatively document a vision or two you may have of a person-centered collective leadership design of a networked information system.
The Designer in Each of Us!
What if our discipline made the shift from a science approach (organizing our professional knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the world) towards a design approach (identifying problems and addressing them with human-centered solutions)?
Miguel A. Figueroa, Foreword to Design Thinking[2]
To conclude, there are two possible futures for libraries: one is a passive future, in which libraries sit back and let others design solutions to information problems. The second one, and the one I know I prefer, is the one that libraries design. Design thinking is so pervasive in librarianship that libraries and librarians already have the power to create unique, powerful, value-laden experiences and help individuals, communities, and even societies solve information problems. It’s time to embrace design as a fundamental component of librarianship in order to create a better future for all.
R