Farthest away at KTH large campus is the institution which in short is called Machine. An institution with a long tradition. Here is Sara Ilstedt – she is a professor in product and service design. But she is not an engineer – she’s a designer.
When we meet in the afternoon is the plot in the hallways. The explanation is quite obvious as the sun shines outside.
The color and shape and beautiful objects was it that attracted Sara Ilstedt to study industrial design at the College. But pretty soon the road began snaking away from the traditional role of the designer.
– I thought it was too little discussion of design if the signals it transmits. The products communicate a message. But I got no response for a while. Then it was ergonomics and function were in focus.
So she searched through to be able to immerse themselves in the design works as cultural objects began writing about design and saw that it was declared a doctoral student in human-computer interaction. She sought, and to her surprise she came in.
– It was like an interdisciplinary graduate school. Sociologists, journalists, behavioral scientists, technical people – all possible orientations coexisted here.
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And twelve years ago doctorate Sara Ilstedt as the first industrial designer ever in Sweden.
since then, it has focused on interdisciplinary collaborations for her. New ways to look at the technology and design of the technology has been in the center.
– I think it’s really important interdisciplinary science. My mission is to bring design thinking in the scientific community. We have so much to gain by working together and there is also a lot of knowledge in the technology world as the design industry needs when it comes to the development of sustainable products and services, while the designer comes in with the user perspective.
For years she worked at interactive Institute, and there she was with and took out the game brain Ball, a game where players control a ball with the brain. Or rather, do not use the brain – just by being the most relaxed and passive to get the ball to roll towards the other player and win the game. But then one must then disconnect just winning instinct first.
– We wanted to get to the body of it all. Had a computer scientist created the game it would probably become a graphic representation on a screen. And that’s where design comes in as an important area of knowledge for creating material objects – things that are tempting. Things that can be fascinating, stimulating our imagination or provoking.
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Another project opened up new ideas initiated by the Energy Agency who wanted to help bring down electricity consumption by raising awareness
So Sara Ilstedt and some other researchers at the Interactive Institute was connected and the result was flimsy cords where electricity is visualized as water who ran, a flower bulb budding leaves more and more the more energy consumed in the home and a clock that displays energy consumption rhythm of the day.
– this was completely new way to get us to understand what electricity is . When we started, it was the energy industry is not at all interested in this way of using design to reduce our electricity consumption – but today there are a lot of different projects, she said.
And it is in this way that research to work, Sara Ilstedt, it should make us think in new ways and to challenge the ingrained.
– the design industry has an incredible influence over how all the technology looks like. Over the interaction. But looking at a design framework is limited – the task will be completed in a certain time and within a certain budget. There is very little room for examination – in research, we can go the whole hog much more.
And if there is no time for outside research – all the more important for students to test and examine under the program.
– Then they still bring it in the back when they come into work.
today, design has widened and has not only great impact on how technology and product design. The design process has also spread into other areas.
– Design methodology itself is innovative and is increasingly used in innovative processes, even those who do not have the design to make, says Sara Ilstedt.
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It is also about a lot more than just designing stylish phones. For example, how a household robot be designed? Should it be a woman?
– In Japan, where the come very far with robots, there is no gender discussion whatsoever. And that’s a proper traditional society, so the risk is that it enhances and maintains the outdated standards.
It may be difficult to see and relate to standards being reproduced in new products and new technology – but often transfers to still the old way of thinking about it. For example, we are still talking about the horsepower that we once thought of it as the horses were sitting in the engine.
Robots is completely new for us and can be experienced as intimidating as they move and act in a human way.
– for us to feel safe do you make them happy to women – because they are perceived as nice. And thus reinforced the norm even more.
But is it not also very manipulative to try to suppress our fear by designing robots so they look nice?
– Everything is more or less manipulative. Clearly or less clearly. I think it’s quite nice when old people in Japan do not have to take tranquilizers because we created the cute robotic animals to them that they can clap. I would love to have such a self, says Sara Ilstedt.
Even when not the manufacturers deliberately put in things that will humanize robots, we are good at doing it themselves. Robotic mowers are often named.
– There are studies that show that very many people put eyes on them so that they look like smDet where skerter eye on them so they look like smådant to humanize robots so we are good at making it sj’dem. IA dogs. That is not done so consciously, but is more emotionally driven and deeper in us, says Sara Ilstedt.
If you have got to decide – what gender do you think a robot that helps us at home to have?
– It would be difficult to reproduce gender roles and encode the female. But it would not feel particularly fun to just turn it around and make the males. So I think it can be a little queer – with both masculine and feminine elements. Preferably on a slightly humorous way that makes us think a little.
Robots in all its glory but it is not the occupying Sara Ilstedts thoughts in the first place, but it’s durability. But this time it is not about producing products that when she worked in energy-saving projects at the Interactive Institute
– I thought it was too much stuff and wanted to explore other things, that the drivers there are for people to embrace a sustainable lifestyle.
So she started the research group Green Leap that has just the utgånspunkten. There are design together with such things as environmental and behavioral science.
How would the IT sector to contribute?
– Unfortunately, there still seems to interest to be pretty cool. A colleague was at an IT conference in the US and sustainability mentioned hardly – it’s a non-issue, but it should not be, not least the large corporate data centers draw incredible energy, she says.
another problem is that the elaboration technology is so fast that we have to replace our mobile phones and computers before the end of life.
– at the same time it also has a large potential to contribute to a sustainable society. And there are ways for the IT industry to contribute – if it sounds photovoltaic push server halls and uses more of the concepts that Fairphone where we do not have to replace the entire phone, but it is enough individual parts. That would mean big step forward.
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