This is nitpicking - but there's actually a strange tie-in that might put the two at odds with each other, in some circumstances. Part of sustainable design is designing products built to last - a long time. Miniaturization - laptops, cell phones, etc, only means that whatever you had before will most likely be thrown out. That's an impact, and a very big one especially when it comes to things like phones and PDAs. Do you really need a new car every 3 years? or 5 years? or 10? Can you live without that cool new Mac laptop? Can you get by on your old phone that weighs a half ounce more and looks a little less cool than a Motorola Razor? You absolutely can. Not only do designers need to be involved, but so do the owners of the products and services designers play a role in making.
My point is - since lots of things aren't accessible - making them so sometimes means new models, which means old ones get thrown out. Now, I'm all for accessibility by all means and I don't want to downplay the importance of it, and there are certainly ways around this - like a device that can be connected to the web and have more accessible software downloaded to it, etc. It's just an interesting dilemma. This is certainly related to recent discussion about the Mac Air. Everyone jumps on board thinking about the IxD, the innovative design, etc. And yes, it's cool for sure. But if you look at it from the viewpoint of sustainable design, it could be viewed as downright irresponsible product design, driven only by the dynamics of social image and profit-making. Jeff On Jan 18, 2008 12:59 PM, Gloria Petron <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I wonder if there isn't some sort of tie-in forming between accessibility > and sustainability. Both are socially-conscious initiatives aimed at Doing > the Right Thing. > > ________________________________________________________________ > *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* > February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA > Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
