I definitely took a lot of inspiration from the news in order to make my constraint map. Of course, it is very easy to find negative news about everything that is going on because it has been truly tragic for some individuals and organizations. I tried to find good news, as well as take the bad news and turn it into something with potential when building my map. For example, while many people are unable to work right now we might start to see a rise in working from home from many professions where this usually might not be possible. Certain businesses are declining rapidly while others are gaining popularity due to what the country needs right now. I think there is a lot of room for innovation because of what is going on. A lot of businesses are using this time to restructure. For example, a restaurant in an article I read had to shut down but they decided to restructure into an extremely successful takeout business. In my own life, my boss from the store I used to work at has converted a lot of her operations to online as well as using social media to connect with customers.
When it comes to the design process, I think the most important thing to look at are societal constraints because this issue is tied directly into society and what people are doing about it. In addition to this, safety is extremely important because right now that is everyone’s main concern. When looking at constraints for production, I decided to focus on both manufacturing material goods as well as just spreading ideas such as lifestyle changes because likely the idea will not be a material good traditionally considered in the design process. Time is important when it comes to designer constraints, because we are trying to beat this pandemic as quickly as possible. Ideally, the lifestyle changes we design would be efficient for getting life back to normal.
I highlighted items such as social distancing, limited resources, “curbside services”, finite amount of resources, opportunity to innovate, lifestyle changes, and social distancing. I think the biggest opportunity to innovate lies in technology as well as transitioning businesses models to something that can survive in the conditions we are dealing with. With the technology we have, there are a lot of places where lifestyle changes could be made in order to benefit the general public. A lot of this is already happening with online classes for students, but there are definitely so many other ways to implement technology in everyday life. I also think there is a lot that could be done to improve the quality of people’s lives during this time of social distancing.
For my historical comparison, I looked in the 1918 influenza pandemic. When reading about it, it felt like I was reading about the current corona pandemic. It spreads fast, there is no cure, and many of the techniques we are using such as quarantining and social distancing were enforced to keep the disease from spreading. It was crazy to me that, over 100 years later, we are using the same techniques as they used back then. It seems like there should be a better way now, with how far we have come as a society.
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