Kevin at Question Technology was at the CHI 2007 conference and found a really interesting paper and presentation called “Questioning the Technological Panacea: Three Reflective Questions for Designers” (Eric Baumer and Bill Tomlinson).
They discussed three questions that product designers should ask:
- “Given a technological solution, are there other, possibly non-technological solutions that could address the same problem equally well, if not better?”
- “Is the problem being addressed perceived as a problem by the proposed users, or is the situation being unnecessarily problematized by designers?”
- “By focusing on a specific problem, is the solution treating a symptom and hiding the cause?”
This paper was part of the “alt.chi” program at CHI, which is a forum for unusual work that wouldn’t ordinarily get published by the conference. Alt.chi submissions are posted and reviewed in an open public forum.
Read the paper!