To engage in a Design process requires a belief that the process will provide the answer. Testimony is not enough. One needs to experience it.
Writing
Matt Shanks uses 20 years of design, technology and product experience to enable socially responsible early-stage startups and fast-growing scale-ups to minimise waste, grow, and make a positive difference. He writes and speaks regularly about design, digital technology, and social systems to explore and bring to attention how those domains interact and amplify one another.
All essays
People not proxies
We’re running out of ways to explain to people why they should care about other people. Maybe we need to try something different?
When did software lose its softness?
Does software provide a way for anyone to customise the way they interact with the services and tools we make?
Somewhere between saviour and selfish
What do men gain by embracing gender equality? What do men lose by perpetuating historical views of masculinity?
Don’t Fence Me In
How do designers get out of solving surface-level problems and start contributing to the world’s biggest ones?
Hybrid working isn’t a middle-ground
A hybrid model doesn’t mean less work, it means more. Even partially distributed teams means you need to understand and nail how distributed teams, properly.
The problem with being problem solvers
What happens when the default world view becomes one where there is a solution to every problem? Might there be another way?
We, the endangered
Is it inevitable that humans end up on the endangered species list? And, if so, how long have we got before that happens?
How to commercialise research
Many academics are scared of commercialising research because, well, they like research. But what if they didn’t need to become founders?
We are but gloriously broken robots
Our imperfect truths are shared and amplified by the simple act of writing it down.
Let’s innovate!
Are internal innovation labs putting the cart before the horse by focussing on the technology before the problem?
Growing plants and people
It’s difficult to grow mangoes in Melbourne. Is there something we can learn from that to help people flourish?
What I know about building a design career
Career design may be less about paths and ladders and more about star and space travel.
Is digital real?
Digital takes what’s real – land, water, energy – and converts it into abstractions of value that, for some reason, we seem to value more than the finite resources that are used to make it.
Software wants to disrupt everything but itself
The relationship between software and regulation is broken, but software is more likely to be able to fix it. It’s just… it doesn’t want to.
Faith in tech-knowledgey
Whether we know it or not, we all believe in something and many of us think that Technology will save us.
The deepening of intergenerational digital and social exclusion
The role of software designers in the deepening and widening of social exclusion.
The misleading connection between art and design
Why do most people still think there’s any sort of link between design and art?
No one expects me to lift a piano at work
We rely too much on the visual system for understanding eachother’s abilities when what we need to do is listen, learn, then act.
We can’t help but put ourselves in the centre
We’ve persistently fail to recognise that our species isn’t ruler of all, but in fact dependant on all.
Creating a culture of inclusivity in a society of pervasive masculinity
Why do we congratulate people using such violent words like kicking goals and killing it?
What am I supposed to do with privilege?
When one happens to be born as privileged as can be, how are we supposed to use that to eradicate privilege in the first place?
I don’t hate work like I should
This was first published on cogent.co Sometimes I feel bad about the fact that I like my job. I hear it all the time from my friends and from my family.“Work sucks! I hate my job! Urgh, I have to go back to work on Monday.” It’s pretty depressing to know that the people I… Continue reading I don’t hate work like I should
The grass is greener on the front lawn
English and French aristocratic values expressed in garden design are quite literally the incorrect application of a design solution for a context that’s not the right fit. We use resources like water in a place where water is becoming increasingly precious in order to maintain an ‘ideal’ that we’ve been trained to believe is the ‘right’ way.
The short but important history of design
I’ve never had an interest in history. As a child growing up in Australia’s education system – through primary, secondary and even tertiary levels, history was the subject I found most boring. I loved the sciences and English, practical subjects that would help me in the future. My focus was all about the future during those years – what will I do with my life? How will I get there by the actions I perform tomorrow? What if it doesn’t go as I planned? Little did I know that history was actually the answer to most of my concerns about the future. It wasn’t history that was boring, it was the way it was being taught.
Designers need to get their hands dirty
The perception of design and what it’s capable of is undergoing a transformation. No longer is it about the veneer of visual aesthetic or the product encased in glass in a museum. Designers have a new social responsibility; to step away from their computer screens and step up to the highest level of large organisations and become strategic thinkers. It’s going to be hard work but it’s time to begin using design to make long-term systemic change that can influence the way we live our lives and how we affect people, the planet and the bottom line.
Makers gonna make
As I meander through stories and biographies of artists and designers (both past and present) a common theme emerges – makers make because they feel they have to and they can’t imagine doing anything else. What’s not clear yet is the motivation. Is it aggrandizement? Industry awards? Or does it go deeper than that – are we fishing for opinions on our worth from those who live outside of our own head? We don’t judge ourselves on our output but rather everyone else’s response to it.
We’re all writing our own story
Whilst I cannot speak for Tolstoy, Dickens or Bronte it’s clear to me that writing is about more than just the language or verse, it’s about more than hard work and endless hours of writing and re-writing – it’s about recognising that our own stories are important and interesting enough to tell.
You are not creative unless you create
I propose a new frame of reference, a new meaning for this sought after sense of self-worth. This label of ‘creativity’ we so aspire to have bestowed upon us by colleagues, friends or family need not be a judgement of value but rather a judgement of repeated behaviour and repeated behaviour only.
Staring in to the fire: The benefits of alone time
As the fabric of society get more tightly woven day by day, alone-time is becoming harder to find and the consequence could be catastrophic for everyone’s childhood friend; imagination.
Pleasure in waiting: A lesson from the seasons
If “patience” were an animal, the world would be up in arms. Sir David Attenborough would be called in for a special documentary to broaden awareness of its plight. The World Society for Protection Against Animals would be accosting people in the street asking for donations to fund an initiative on behalf of the species. Funds would be found in government departments to assist in trying to bring it back to life and no doubt, some sort of international committee would be formed to help spare us of its demise. No, it’s not a cute cuddly critter nor is it a starving African child. Patience however is becoming extinct and technology is the assassin.
Cue, Saturation, Blindess: How we consume the new
I deal with the Hue, Saturation and Brightness (HSB) colour system on a daily basis as a creative professional, forever trying to achieve the perfect balance of these elements in order to tell a story and communicate a message. I was quite surprised when I discovered then that humanity seems driven by a similar but much more powerful set of component parts – Cue, Saturation and Blindness. These three elements work together and bring about emotion and change as well as a lasting impact upon how we live our lives.
A rose by any other name
Design is bigger business than ever before. As businesses try to to get a grasp of the digital revolution, designers have found a gap in the market where design is no longer needed. Selling the idea of design and other simple, everyday concepts is a lot less effort and a lot more profitable, provided you’re a wordsmith and have the personality and the pie charts to back it up.
Well-read is well-fed
If reading is exercise for the brain then my brain is morbidly obese. The birth of a new year helps a lot of people focus on losing those few extra pounds that showed up in the mirror over the Christmas break. My problem hasn’t been the physical but the mental. I haven’t been looking at the world with the same set of eyes over the last 3 or 4 months and my ability to articulate my thoughts has been akin to an obese person trying to climb a flight of stairs.
Ditch your designer label and make people happy
Like designer jeans, job titles in the online industry will change style, come in and out of fashion and in a few years, look ridiculous at your next job interview. My advice? Leave the hipster designer labels at the front door and focus on what you do best. Solve problems that improve the quality of life and do it with the help of like-minded people.
The role of weight in luxury
Are we sacrificing our sense of ‘touch’ and ‘feel’ for convenience and portability or will touch just take on a different meaning now? Are we about to witness a revolution in making our multi-touch devices more tactile? The quilted back of the Kobo, the plethora of leather, wood and felt cases for all our current mobile devices, make it obvious to me that I’m not alone in wanting a more comforting digital experience. It’s clear that humans find comfort in tactile experiences, what interests me going forward in my professional life is how we’re going to address this need if our content is trapped within the confines of the 2D, gloss-coated LCD.
Branding matters for cigarette companies clinging to emotional connection
Is it the cigarettes that are cool or is it whether you smoke Marlborough or Winfield? The value of branding to companies is nothing new but it seems that the Australian government has finally caught on and they’ve decided that it’s time cigarette companies went green. No, I’m not talking about a Carbon tax, I’m talking about ‘olive green’. It’s the new recommended brand colour for every tabacco company’s packaging in Australia and, if the government gets it’s way, it’s about to become law.
Creative ideas when you least expect them
In a previous post, Creativity is not a personality trait but a moment in time, I discussed the Ted talk given by Ms Elizabeth Gilbert about the concept of a ‘genius’. It raised some very big questions in me about my own creative process and how and why I have these ‘moments of genius’ where an idea seems as though it’s presented itself on a silver platter with all the trimmings. I’ve started to track when and where I get hit by these lightning bolts; I’m not that surprised about the results: My best ideas don’t happen at work.
Creativity is a moment not a personality trait
Regardless of what we like to believe, a designer (or creative as some of us like to be known) isn’t creative all of the time. No one person has creative idea after creative idea; it’s impossible. But perhaps ‘creative-types’ are more receptive to the moments of creativity that are presented to them than those who shrug off their lack of creative thinking with lines like, “Don’t look at me for ideas, I don’t have a creative bone in my body.” Is it creativity that needs to be learned? Or rather, do we just need to learn when to recognise moments of creativity and how to grab hold of them?
User Experience designer: fact or fiction
The online digital interactive experience pie is a big one and in the last few years I’ve noticed a slight shift in whose eating at the dinner table. User experience designers seemed to have pulled up a chair, grabbed a knife and fork and started to feast but is their company in sharing the meal really worth the time and effort of the cooks and the clients who are preparing the pie?
Graphic design in the ‘pokie room’
Head in to any poker-machine room in Australia and you’ll find the same thing; Wall to wall backlit poker-machines with bright, shiny happy faces and animals strewn across them. The glow they cast lights up faces of human-beings of the opposite countenance; a depressed, zombie-like state has possessed every player. How is it possible that such a juxtaposition of graphic design and human feeling can exist so close to one another; side-by-side, across the nation? Are we the problem? Or is it the graphic design that needs to be addressed?
Journalism’s role in shaping the way that we think
When was the last time you left the front door of your home open and unlocked while you pottered about the house doing your weekend chores. Or when was the last time you let your children play in the street, eat mud pies or go out with their friends without a mobile phone? Have our largest online news sources unknowingly become propogators of societal fear, constantly reminding us of how dangerous today’s world is and how we can make ourselves safer by not catching public transport, putting up higher fences and wrapping our children in cotton wool? Is gen-y really the worst, most violent generation yet?
The private approach to design education
Can a 12 month, privately run education make you a ‘designer’? What secrets are the Universities missing out on that mean students are spending 3 to 4 years studying a design degree if it can be accomplished more quickly elsewhere for a smaller fee? Private design colleges are touting cheaper, faster and more successful employment rates upon graduation then their government funded educational counterparts but perhaps the old engineering adage applies to graphic design education also – Fast, Cheap, Good – Pick two.
The delicate task of design
Yes, there’s sex, lies and violence in today’s world and yes, they are commodities. That’s simply a fact. The question is, are graphic designers who agree to work on the design of advertorial material for these industries lesser designers than those who work for not-for-profit or education sectors? Are they contributing to the ever-decreasing age of sex and drug related criminals? Would the world be a better place if designers kept their crafty fingers and creative ideas from these filthy industries?
Designing the adult world with children in mind
Why do all of our men’s magazine’s look the same? Penthouse, Playboy… the only way to tell the difference these days is the masthead. What if you got rid of the girl on the front-cover just once and used some creative graphic design? Would the crowds flock to to buy the magazine? Or would it spell economic disaster for a pornography giant?
Are computers getting in the way of creativity?
What I believe we’re experiencing today is communication at a speed that’s hindering proper (or at least exploratory) levels of creativity. People expect results ‘at the end of the day’ or ‘in an hour’ or ‘within 15 minutes’. Perhaps this is a bigger problem then just creative thought too. Perhaps, as a society we’re simply becoming more impatient? Our expectation of when we should have things (and how we get them) is becoming more demanding. Is the global financial crisis a result of this increased impatience too? People living beyond their means, wanting houses and products now, not later?