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DoveTools: Visual theming, easier tag analysis and Otter transcripts for Dovetail

I have been using Dovetail extensively on several projects recently and it is an amazing product. Compared to the traditional manual methods, it is a game-changer for collating, highlighting, analysing, and sharing qualitative design research.

I have refined my qualitative research workflow over time and Dovetail is a great addition to my toolkit. However, there are few areas in the product that could be improved to further streamline my workflow. To this end, I have put together a collection of tools called DoveTools.

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Unbuy: An exploration in anti-consumption

Early last year, I was trying to figure out a way to help people reduce their personal material consumption and landed on a concept called Unbuy. Unbuy is a service that helps you set goals, reduce your impact, and save money by buying less.

Unbuy focuses on the first word of the ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ mantra – reducing consumption at its core. Here’s how it works:

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Doing less as a key climate action

What do we want?
Climate action!
When do we want it?
Now!

If you have been to any climate protests recently you have probably heard the above rallying cry. Against the backdrop of deeply coordinated climate inaction on behalf of governments and corporations in rich nations, calling for climate action makes perfect sense.

We can view ‘climate action’ as any activity that aims to push us away from business as usual, from the status quo, in order to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

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What I do to reduce my environmental footprint

I wrote about the difference between individual change and system change earlier this year. I wanted to do some introspection to identify what individual actions I am taking in my own life to reduce my environmental footprint. I have grouped these actions into a few different categories below. These lists are not exhaustive, and will change and evolve over time.

I found collecting these lists helpful in looking at my lifestyle from different angles. Considering these different perspectives was perhaps more valuable than the exact items collected under each of the headings. Doing this also raised some interesting debates at home around what is considered reducing your footprint in the first place.

I am sharing these as a conversation starter rather than as a preconceived checklist for anyone else to follow, with the acknowledgement that all of this remains woefully inadequate given the enormity of the challenges we face.

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Individual change or system change is not the right question

I have been thinking about change.

Specifically, I have been thinking about the difference between individual change and system change. These terms are prevalent in the climate change discourse, and often presented as a black-and-white, mutually exclusive choice. This is a false dichotomy.

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Exploring the fringe: Environmental breakdown vs. the System

The unravelling, and a ball of thread

2018 was a watershed year for public awareness of ecological and climate breakdown. I had heard about these crises many times over the years, however I never really thought about them in a focused way. Last year, I decided to start studying.

Information on climate change and biodiversity loss is like an endless ball of thread. You pull the thread and more comes out. You keep pulling, the same thing happens. Now several months in, I am still pulling that thread, and still learning. Information ever more curious, ever more serious, ever more disconcerting.

Below, I am highlighting some of the more unorthodox material that I have come across. This is not a comprehensive review but rather a few points and observations on each source, to give you an idea.

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Nature, awe and fear

Table of Contents

Water

I learned to swim in calm waters. Small lakes, predictable and easy. You don’t need to worry about the waves, or timing.

The ocean is a different beast. The coastline is beautiful, the waves majestic and powerful.

I am not a strong swimmer, and I was repeatedly reminded of this years ago when trying to learn surfing (which I failed).

Some of those moments: awe-inspiring waves, fun play in the water. Then a wave crashing over your head, a big tumble underwater, and a sudden realisation that you are not running the show – the ocean is.

Awe and fear.

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Human centred design considered harmful

In the 1990’s, I worked as a programmer and a software developer. Back then, using computer software was quite difficult for the layperson. I moved into the field of interaction design and learned about usability in the 2000’s. It was a revelation: we could no longer blame the user for everything that went wrong with software – the blame now lay squarely with us, the ones who made the software.

The disciplines of usability and interaction design, along with several others, have since evolved into a field we now tend to call User Experience. We follow an approach called Human Centred Design, which involves ‘the human perspective in all steps of the problem-solving process’.

I have spent nearly a decade and a half working in this field and have always held a strong belief that design should be human centred.

Lately, I have been having some doubts. Let me explain.

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