Review for Questioning the Technological Panacea: Three Reflective Questions for Designers

This paper sets out three questions that the authors argue HCI designers should ask to evaluate possible design solutions that employ technology: (1) given a technological solution, are there other non-technological solutions? (2) Is the problem being addressed perceived as a problem by the users, or is the situation being unnecessarily problematized? (3) By focusing on a specific problem, is the solution treating a symptom and hiding the cause? The paper uses example cases from HCI literature (primarily CHI, Ubi Comp and CSCW) to illustrate how the questions might be answered and what the consequences of not addressing them might be.

This is a very useful short paper. It is sort of a design-methods paper in that it proposes specific questions that can be used to evaluate problem-finding and problem-solving aspects of design. The questions get at the heart of the HCI designer object world. (“Object worlds” – a term coined by Lawerence Buccaiarelli in “Designing Engineers” -- describes the sorts of "legitimate" factors that a practitioner will consider.) The authors rightly take on the apparent digital technology imperative found in HCI – that is, situations are ripe with “problems” which digital technology and a good interface can “solve”.

This should not be news to designers, but since HCI does not use the extended apprenticeship model found in other disciplines such as architecture, fashion, or even graphic design, it is important to remind us all of the obvious. Therefore, I would support inclusion of this in alt.chi .

One recommendation that would strengthen this paper is looking at Horst Rittle’s work on tame and wicked problems. He points out that design problems (wicked problems) can be characterized as the symptom of another problem – and therefore, choose the formulation that solves the problem at an appropriate level. He also notes that each formulation of the problem corresponds to a unique solution and vice versa. The paper is “On the Planning Crisis: First and Second Generations” 1971 in Bedriftsøkonemen # 8. It is available from the Institute of Urban and Regional Development, UC Berkeley as reprint #107.