The following is a set of conceptual designs (based on Bill Gaver's Design Workbooks) which critiques technologies' dominant orientation toward time and time management, and suggests an alternate set of designs, making use of the critical and reflective design technique of "inverting metaphors and crossing boundaries."
GRIDDED TIME
“Gridded time” is a particular construction of and orientation toward time found in the “modern” world. This can be seen in the ubiquitious literal imposing of a “grid” for planning, scheduling, and viewing time, such as in calendar and scheduling tools.
“Gridded time” is a particular construction of and orientation toward time found in the “modern” world. This can be seen in the ubiquitious literal imposing of a “grid” for planning, scheduling, and viewing time, such as in calendar and scheduling tools.
Conceptually, six qualities or assumptions underlie the notion of gridded time, listed on the next page. These qualities are embedded values within many time and scheduling technologies used in the “modern” world. While these are not normatively good or bad qualities, it is worth asking if these qualities and values actually match our experiences with time. What might design that challenges the notion of gridded design look like?
I challenge the notion of gridded time by inverting the six values of gridded time, creating an alternative set of assumed values. By designing from an alternative set of values, we can explore possible alternative orientations toward time and expose the values and orientations to time embedded in current technologies by highlighting incongruences between these embedded values and people’s experience.
