Zoomer the
Consumer
" No Zoomer! Put it back; you know we can't afford the new 1984 Macintosh.
"
" But Mommm all of
my friends have one!
" I'm sorry Zoomer, we
just don't have money like other people do.
"
"
Meet Zoomer; the only child of a single mother. He grew up always wanting more.
More toys, more friends, more knowledge, more "things".
Perhaps it was the consumer society he grew up in, or perhaps it was the fact that he never had much. Whatever the reason, his desire for more was unwavering.
However, Zoomer learned at an early age that most of what he wanted he just couldn't have, so he focused on what he could have, and that was knowledge. He became obsessed with his education and had an affinity for design.
Fast forward to 1997 when Zoomer graduated from design school.
He excelled in every category; particularly product marketing and advertising design, both of which burned into his emotional being from his childhood.
He led all of the school projects and even began working with several large corporations as he neared graduation.
Now was his time. All those years of wanting what he couldn't have were over. He knew he was the best and he saw where the money was.
He took his talents to the industry where he sold dog biscuits,
designer coffee,
diamonds,
detergents,
hair gel,
cigarettes,
credit cards,
sneakers,
butt toners,
light beer,
&
heavy duty recreational vehicles
Within a couple of years, he had everything he had ever wanted; but still, he wanted more. human dignity ism r e m u cons human right s
So, he did what he had always done; he sought greater knowledge. Only this time, his endeavors took him in a drastically different direction.
One of the first things he stumbled upon was a paper delivered at a national conference organized by the Design Education Forum of Southern Africa,
"Reshaping South Africa by Design " Within minutes, he underwent a reversal of priorities; the words of Dr. Asmal resonated with him so deeply.
Zoomer realized that design was an increasingly important and powerful profession where ethical, cultural and social implications were a growing concern as design systems - not artifacts were implemented in the interconnected world.
For the first time in his life, he truly understood the difference between
user-centered design
&
human-centered design as they pertain to human dignity and human rights.
"
The implications of the idea that design is grounded in human dignity and human rights are enormous, and they deserve careful exploration. I believe they will help us to better understand aspects of design that are otherwise obscured in the flood of poor or mediocre products that we find everywhere in the world. We should consider what we mean by human dignity and how all of the products that we make either succeed or fail to support and advance human dignity. And we should think carefully about the nature of human rights the spectrum of civil and political, economic and social, and cultural rights - and how these rights are directly affected by our work. The issues surrounding human dignity and human rights provide a new perspective for exploring the many moral and ethical problems that lie at the core of the design professions.
Zoomer was so profoundly moved by this new design thinking that he quit his job immediately and organized the
Neighborhood Networks Project; a community based participatory design project that strove for the democratization of design.
He wanted to see the impact of presenting everyday people in the community the opportunity to interact with a specific design system that would elucidate their unique perspective and
"
discover, invent and deliver arguments about how we could or should live in the world. Zoomer organized the project into four phases:
"
1
Initial Engagements where participants familiarized themselves with the technology to be used and its capabilities for their future design.
2 where participants creatively and deliberately thought out how the technology might be used - at their discretion and documented their ideas.
Concept Development & Design
3
Iterative Design & Production where participants were given the option to work alone or in groups, with skilled researchers shadowing and assisting them whenever called upon.
4 where participants organized a public event to demonstrate their prototypes and designs.
Final Presentation
The results from Zoomer's experiment were exhilarating.
Participants got deep into the design research process and initiated conversations regarding existing systems, the potentially new systems, how the two may co-exist or how the new systems could replace the old systems.
Zoomer filled his void for something greater, something that would truly advance human dignity and human rights through rhetorical design.
And we all know Zoomer by now . . . he always wants
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P. A .O