After reading this World Changing article via Putting People first I started to realize how much stands in the way of a service economy. The article in itself did not reveal that much about the innovative ways in which we could be considering our possessions for one. I find it a bit depressing that we are still talking about basic and impersonal services like car sharing, tool sharing, lending and renting services, things that Ezio Manzini has been talking about for the past 10 years.
Yes people like to own things, they socially define themselves by what they own, so services that would challenge and question our worldly belongings and the way we interact with them (Rentathing comes to mind) would be more useful to the whole discourse i think… especially when you read the types of comments that accompanied the article. I think that people seriously need to start considering what their impact on the environment is but also for designers to start getting a lot more creative about the options that we offer people. If some services have changed the face of video rental, air travel, music sharing, surely there is a fabulous design space beyond sharing your lawnmower with the neighbor! Club cards aren’t the answer to everything.
2 comments so far
Thanks a ton for posting that, Alexandria…
I’m nurturing a series of online conversations on the likelihood of a low-impact, pooled-/rented-resources global culture (and the possibilities for design to manifest it), and the depressing conclusion we are reaching is that people actually believe that resources are infinite, and that “science” will constantly open up newer ones as older ones go extinct. I would like to invite readers’ frank responses to this.
I grew up in a scarcity-plagued India, and absorbed its resource-miserly value system and lifestyle effortlessly. I am disturbed to see how this wonderful lived culture (that should be shared with the rest of the world) is being rapidly replaced by the same illusion - and even more heartbreakingly, how “design” is an active agency in creating and propagating it.
It is heartening to see small communities like the Simple Living Network (www.simpleliving.net) to name one, resisting and attempting to undo this trend.
Hi Arvind,
I completely agree with your comment and the consumption-based society we nurture in the western world has to stop (one of the reasons why i chose to turn to service design as a guiding light in that direction) but we can only tame the beast by understanding it. If we understand people’s drives and can design services which are just as appealing as the heap of products we are producing, then there is hope. People will pay for better experiences if its better than a product and obviously ease of use and convenience are part of what attracts people to rental services.