In a folktale course I took last year, we learned about how folktales all share patterns that are characteristic of a true "story". I find it particularly interesting that even amongst different communities that are divided by geography, culture, or other factors, there are consistent and recurring themes that emerge in the stories we share. All remarkable or significant stories require conflict or tension and I think this speaks to our nature of being problem solvers. Our attention is often gained and kept by challenges to our beliefs, values, or knowledge.

This reading highlights the importance of proactively amending historical bias and prejudice through design justice. It is not sufficient to identify and challenge bias as it is actively affects marginalized groups. Passages throughout this reading reflect how biases are perpetuated in our institutions, technology, and how they manifest in our society. Creating inclusive scopes of design that observe all individuals and their respective identities is key to appending these gaps in design. In another INFO course we experimented with LLMs and AI image generators. Evidently, majority of these LLMs were trained with data that favored historically dominant demographics, further amplifying these imbalances.

Unintended by Design: This reading explores how terminology and language imputes bias by misplacing blame and underscoring accountability. The conflation of anticipated and unintentional creates a space for designers to relieve themselves of ethical and moral obligation under the guise of uncertainties and confounding factors. This negligence is harmful and irresponsible.

It is interesting to think about how users of different operating systems become accustomed to their own devices and often struggle to use other operating systems. I think that both are similar to use and navigate from any background but we become so used to certain systems and familiarize ourselves with particular commands or gestures making other systems feel extremely foreign. One funny example of this is when I played Fortnite regularly during quarantine and I began to dream in the same layout and envisioned performing standard actions or the basic controls. Humans are extremely vulnerable to patterns and as this passage explains, it is crucial to take advantage of that by creating consistent designs.

I think this statement highlights the fundamental principle of UX and UI design. Understanding and reflecting this objective in a design is crucial its success. When we look at the interaction between a design or system and its user we should be extremely observant of the interaction in the perspective of the user. We must understand the users themselves and what they seek from our system, how can we can best fulfill the users goals, and how the users interact with the system and where our system falls short.

I think that we can often get overly eager or excited by certain ideas which can make us feel certain about the success of an idea or its execution. There's a lot more to an idea that the initial spark that resurfaces during materialization. Prototypes save us both time and money. Designs are much more thorough and detailed that we imagine. We often focus on the parts of a design that we are most attracted to and fail to encompass the entirety of a design or problem during ideation.

The collaborative aspect of design is often overlooked. Many approach design with the notion of creating something new, radical, and historical. However, I think the process of innovation is much more powerful when we approach such in a way that we are appending and synthesizing past attempted solutions. By identifying and filling in gaps, we can better understand the issue itself and create a more encompassing, comprehensive solution. This is also why the iterative process is so critical to an innovative, effective solution.

Being open-minded or at least intentional about how we criticize is key to giving good, meaningful feedback. It is not necessary to be overly positive or negative, the objective lies in offering insights to the designer that can identify vulnerabilities or potential highlights of their design that they can expand upon. Often times, when I receive good feedback it is inspires enthusiasm and creativity for me to explore certain aspects of my design further. Critical feedback allows me to stick to the fundamentals and reconsider aspects of my design that may not address the original problem. | Wicked Problems Response |

The text explains that the problem for designers is to "conceive and plan for what does not yet exist". The solution to wicked problems lies in iteration, imagination, and innovation. I never considered how intangible the process of design can be. In essence, I also associated with something similar to solving a puzzle. However, the process of solving a wicked problem requires much more preparation before even attempting trial and error. First the designer must frame and comprehend the space the problem lies in before proceeding to evaluate who the solution will serve

I think the creative process for most is largely based in this idea of perspective reconfiguration. Often, we tend to associate creativity with notions of a 'free-spirit' or a 'free-thinker' and when we consider these associations we might question what 'freedom' we are referring to. Most would contrast creativity to the sterilized, corporate mentality that is highly institutionalized in education and industry. The creative process these philosophers describe seem to allude to challenging the dogmatic principles that are perpetuated in society through means of language or culture. Which brings me to ask, what defines true creativity. If it is fundamentally based on the premise of presenting something new or ideating something radical, is creative integrity contextually dependent?

I would be interested in learning more about the process or creating and using personas in design. Personally imagining and implementing scenarios into the design process seems like it could be unreliable. Certainly everyone has their own experiences and perspectives which, as the last chapter had mentioned, can completely change the state of the problem. I personally would feel hesitant to unintentionally project my own biases and tendencies on to these personas and would create a persona that is not representative of individuals I am hoping to help. The imaginative process can certainly help in identifying possible weaknesses or vulnerabilities for cases we might not initially consider but I again am curious as to how the personas are 'validated' and used.

I find this statement to be incredibly useful in understanding problems in our perception and approach to solving them. I think most of us were raised with one-dimensional notions of good and bad, right and wrong. We conflate the problems with the concept of something 'bad' which therefore suggests that there is a 'good' or a right to be made. If we apply the reasoning presented in this question, problems will never actually be solved in the greater context. A situation or instance that may present as a problem to one subject or subjects at a single point in time may not be problematic at all in a different context. Having such a fixed and rigid perspective of problems and their solutions can limit our ability to innovate and develop because such a perspective does not acknowledge or consider the alternative contexts that a 'problem' might exist in.

Design as a concept is often conflated with more liberal and aesthetic ideals. Most, like myself, would consider design to be more artistic than practical and have often undermined the value of comprehensive designs. In INFO 300: Research Methods, we learned about how research is effectively conducted in order to explore and fill gaps in knowledge. And while most attention falls to the execution of a study, we learned that the preliminary design process was much more crucial to the success of the study. Design requires both knowledge and intention. Good designs are comprehensive in how and who they serve which not only entails empathy but also inclusivity