The first workshop was done very well I think. I like how Lu and Elia decided to involve us in their presentation with discussions, instead of just talking us through the presentation.

One of the topics we talked about were case studies. What are case studies and how can we find them? They presented the case studies, that were alternative reading topics for this lesson and showed us some ways, to find good case sudies as seen in the notes.

An interesting topic for me is ethnography. It is very important to me to include different cultural viewpoints and ask, why different ethnic groups view things differently. An interesting question which was asked by Lu and Elia was, what we learned while traveling or from people with different backgrounds. I responded: I learned that everyone views the world differently. I feel like we all want the same things in life (like being happy, convenience, etc.), but due to cultural differences we all approach these questions differently and look for different solutions, depending on what our own cuture or ethnic background views as happiness.

Regarding this topic I’ve also learned a lot growing up in switzerland with a different ethnic background. I’ve always felt like there are two views colliding within me, which can be very confusing and overwhelming. But I’m very grateful, that I got to grow up between two quite different ethnicities, because now I have a broader understanding of different kinds of world views and why they came to be.

What do we do with irresponsible designers? This is an interesting question that came up in one of the discussions. But what is an irresponsible designer? To me an irresponsible designer is someone that only adds to different kind of problems like climate change, social injustices and so on. We can choose who we design for and we can also choose to not work for these kinds of companies, but these companies will always be able to find someone willing to work for them. I feel like often the motivation would be money. We can also decide to work for such a company with a personal goal to actually change the company from within.

In the end, it is upto us who we design for and what we design, as long as we are not harming anyone with it, I would say.