Let's make people happy

15-6-2009

Door Mary-Ann Schreurs

Introduction.

I was an alderman in Eindhoven from 2002 to 2006. During those years I discovered that design/creativity is the driving force of the economy, especially when teamed up with technology. So when you look at the Lisbon agenda design should be an integral part.and actually leading. But soon I came to realize that more importantly design is the tool to change. The tool to make people's lifes fundamentally better by creating circumstances that actually fit their needs. This applies to everything. It applies to work, to care, to education, to democracy. And it is more then just catering better to the needs of people. Essentially it is a tool to enable people to create themselves their own lifes. To be a contender as Marlon Brando worded it in the film On the waterfront. And that makes people happy. Of course this entails a fundamental change to the way things are organized in our society. A change for the better with a shift in power from the systems which are there to serve, but actually control our lifes, to the end-user/citizen. It won't be done overnight. Systems are like mammothtankers. They change course very slowly. And the strictly power-driven people have a real problem because this new way is content driven and calls for egalitarian coöperation. So there is bound to be resistrance. But it can be done and it's a moral imperative that it should be done. It helps that it is an integral part of the new economy. That is to say it is where the money comes from in the future, what qualifies as a good external incentive.

Nine statements about the new era. The era of selfrealisation.

1.We are still all slaves of the systems.

People all over the world strive to selfrealisation. They just want to create their own lives. Contrary to the believes of the 90's, living is not owning things and being on you own, but about doing, realizing things and interacting with others. That is what people in Europe nowadays perceive as quality. That's what actually makes people happy. This is not the way our lifes are organized. Under influence of economic and modernistic theories and requirements people's lifes were fragmented and top down organized. Of course (?) with good intentions: things should be organized for the best and the logistics required a certain type of organisation. Actually it meant reducing people to objects of which certain functions could be used or needs accommodated in isolation from the rest. This is still the way our burocracies work. Essentially people are treated as objects, whose main function is to let the system work, even if the system is there to better their lifes. What is going to free them? What is there to make them their own, whole man again? What will turn those burocracies upside down so they will really put the people they are created for at the centre of things? Put in another way can our systems be taylormade to the demands of the one who wears them?

2. The means to freedom is design. Design is a very powerfull tool, especially when matched up with technology.

In creativity or more limited design, we possess the tool to put the end-user in the centre and even let him co-create. No longer in the way Ford put it: you can choose every colour you want as long as it is black anymore, but designed for you and with you. And what are we talking about then. Making your own pretty things? No. Esthetics is a very limited part of design. I'm talking about care and careproducts to measure, schools inviting to learn, designing your own (rented) house, running your own neighbourhood, serious gaming (for instance the game which results in less deaths at birth in real life), cradle-to-cradle ( fundamental sustainablity). Of course that will not only be possible because of designers being able to put the end-user at the centre of things. It will also be because designers are very apt at integrating different disciplines and the professionals that go with them in the creationprocess. Certainly the marriage of design with technoloy is a very happy one. Due to nanothechnology every technology can be taken anywhere, incorporated into everything. Due to ICT immense amounts of information can be integrated. Due to design this can be put into a form people can deal with and in which they can make their own choices. In this way people become selfsufficient. The burocracy is not leading anymore. And for as much as it is still necessary, it will become a servant, serving its purpose. Moreover the servant will be co-created by its users, redesigned to meet their actual needs. All this is possible. And as it is desirable, it should be done in all different domains. Putting the end-user central therefor means inclusion of this type of design in all developments be it economic, social or political and mostly also inclusion of technology. Both just as servants, not as an end in itself..

3. Our society will become a living lab centered around the end-users.

Enabling people to create their own lifes entails the following. End-users are put at the center of things and everybody who holds a piece of the puzzle will be part of a designprocess in which the end-user is co-creator. To give you an example. A computer programm was made for designing houses. The developers were an architectural company, a research institute and a design institute. In close corpoaration with end-users they developed the on screen-structure of a house you couls walk around in and in which everything was changable by using your mouse. All constructionrequirements are of course part of the programm. In the database all available building materials are comprised. As end-user you can change at will. A little price tag is running along on your computerscreen, so you can see what it costs in all. It is possible when you have created what you want to order the materials directly on line and they can be made in the factory if necessary, according to your specifications. In this way you are independant from intermediaries who decide for you what to build or give only their limited view of available goods. Also small or different companies then the one's used by the intermediairies have a chance, because they are part of the database. In real life this programm was used by a building society to have tennants design their own rental houses. In this case the little price tag on the screen designates the rent to be paid. The houses were connected so this put a limit to the degree of freedom as of course the money. But all the houses definetely had an individuality and appeal normally not there in this type of housing. And yet they were all still normal enough for other people to live in after the first tennants would leave. Who would be able in turn to change things again with the aid of the same programm. It is clear that the role of the building society totally differs from the role they normally take. From decider they became enabler.

In this way companies, local authoroties, social enterprices (building societies, hospitals etc.) and knowledge institutes will be co-creating with each other and the end-users to cater to the needs of the end-users The result will be an expanding network of contingent working relations of different parties. Parties who actually mostly don't know of the existence of the other parties or had a different working relation, since they were all organized from the perspective of their own system. Creating from the perpective of the end-user automatically results in another network, other working relations and other results.

As situations of end-users and the circonstances differ and change in time, and the result is made to measure, the development process will be both usable in other situations as well as eternally ongoing. Hence the use of the term living lab, normally used in a more limited sense..

It is important to note that of course there is still the difference between the commissioned building and the self-building described above. More or less in the same way we all take photographs but the professional photographer still exists alongside.

4. Production will be localised..

As already hinted at, the products (both material and immaterial) are much more local products. Foremost because it can be made to measure the possibility is there to reflect the individuality of the local situation in steed of being a standarized product. And here I am thinking about the end-users, but also the location, the culture, thethe organisations involved etc.

As more and more actual products will be custom-made because of the direct involvement of the end-user also the actual production of goods will be re-localised. Bulk production can be done at a distance, where labour is cheap. The time the transport takes is no problem because of the ongoing deliveries. But transport time and transport cost will become a burden for products made to measure a long way from the place where they will be used.

5..Pride in your work,because it matters, because you can make a difference.

Economic development will coincide more and more with social goals. For in economy the shift is to products enabling people to live the good life in the original meaning of the words. Of course money has to be made. But the real economic future, the growthmarket and so the money is in care, education and other basic needs in society (safety). In creating in those fields what people are in need of to live. Not to consume. For example Nokia is developing all kind of careproducts for the elderly. In it technolgy and the end-user orientated design come together. It is easy to be proud of your work if it is making medical systems that make people feel more at ease in hospitals. Or if you make gynaecological lifelike dolls to practize on who because of the software scream and bleed if you do it wrong and thus react as in real life. As a result of this type of training a real reduction of deaths occurs.

Of course you ask yourself what about the cheap labor? If with service design you are able to cater better for the reel demands of the homeless and for the needs of heroinprostitutes to name just two examples, you certainly will be able to enrich the working life of for example cleaners and make the work they do better at the same time. There is no shame in cleaning. There is shame in organizing the work in a way that the workers are reduced to machines.And this applies to all kind of work. In the Netherlands there is the example of nurses taking care of elderly still living in their own homes to leave the big organisations and become independant as to be able to arrange their work in a more fulfilling way both to them as to their clients. The patient is not any more reduced to an object of care on which a certain number of seperate acts is performed at a systemchosen moment, but can decide more freely about the way the care is done. The worker is not anymore reduced to being an object of managers planning how many seconds are allowed and when for every task to do. The nurse can from his own expertize create for and with the client the best care. The superstructure the independant nurses are part op to do the paperwork and fnd the clent is lean, mean and cheap. So vitually all the money goes where it is supposed to go. Into care.

6. Middlemanagement will go.

The example of the carers illustrates the superfluousness and even contraproductivity of middlemanagement. In the example of designing your own home the intermediaries are a barrier to. What is needed is creating a context in which all relevant information is given in a way people can deal with to make choices. Then the people involved can take it from there. It is no longer necessary for reasons of informationmanagement, logistics and efficiency to give no choice and decide top down how things may be done. Thus there is no reason to let the management , and so the management interests which have nothing to do with the interests of the clients but of the organisation, decide. That is the reason middlemanagement is obsolete when doing the right thing is helped by design and technology.

You see the obsoleteness and the new ways of organizing also in the developement of more or less structural coöperation of small companies. A defenite asset is their ability to create contingently the required organisation..

7. Direct democracy at last.

Certainly on the scale of the neighbourhood the people living there can manage most things amongst themselves. Things as the virtual neigbourhood, an interesting example of a communication and desicion making tool, will help. But also planning for the future and as part of bigger whole can be organized in that way. It is is the same as in the care or the housebuilding situation. There is no need for intermediaries deciding for you as soon as you have a form in which all information is given in a way people can work with. The virtual neighbourhood is also so appealing because it enables people to participate at their own moment of choice.

The role of the politicians in this is making possible that people are as much as possible able to run their own lifes and to create the circumstances for the future in which that is still possible. Actually that is not the pervading trend (yet?). At least not in the Netherlands. The focus is very much on safety and repression and creating informationsystems which make that possible.

8. Public space has to be redesigned to be for all

A special mention should be made to public space. Public space is the only location where everybody goes, the only general meeting place. As such it should be inviting to come, inviting to stay amongst others, inviting to meet and inviting to do your own thing and even make your at least temporary mark to all. That really is a design and creative challenge.

In my opinion two developments should be part of that:

- art in the public space has evolved from only static through dynamic to also interactive

- virtual space. The amount of data and information in public space will only grow.

And maybe the museum of the 21st century has to be in public space.

9. All things are shaped. This means that all use is shaped, even if liberally shaped.

You can shape it in a way that people are treated as sheep, you can shape it in a way that people are treated as human beings with all the related rights. The general idea is to do the latter. But even then there are limits to what can be done with the new designs. Of course they will be bettered because of the feedback given by the users. But a very special role is there for art. For art doesn't take boundaries for granted. In art there is the questioning of the normal use and the search to use things in other ways. Especially when dealing with technology this is of fundamental importance.This means it is very important to cherish the creatvity that is not a means. The creativity that is a goal in itself. Art.

Deel via: