Girls and Women: Object Lessons in the Primacy of Interaction

Session Title

Girls and Women: Object Lessons in the Primacy of Interaction

Presenter

Allan Chochinov, Core77

Session Type: Presentation

As more and more design challenges move from artifact to service, and from service to system, the considered role of interaction design has become an imperative. But in the arena of design for social impact, the power of interaction design, deliberately paired with appropriate products, can make for an explosive combination.

This presentation will cover the outputs of a series of projects aimed at creating design interventions along deliberate gender lines, focusing on girls and women, and covering topics ranging from nanny contracts, “ovulation power days,” and breast feeding, to campus date rape, cancer rehabilitation, and leveraging the collective wisdom of grandmothers (one phone call at a time). Through each project, I will articulate in detail how interaction design unlocks the potential for social impact, and how artifacts, paired with those interactions, can be leveraged to create compelling, repeatable recipes for social change.

Bonus: For attendees interested in design education, this session will provide a template for fast-tracking interaction design learning across many disciplines. For those who have a, well, different relationship to school, did we mention the remote lipstick-message-on-the-mirror device? Or the housework tools designed for a man? Fun AND social impact promised for all.