ABSTRACT
We can look at the tools and technologies presented earlier and see positive and powerful impact. The person who posts the racist comment is met with an avalanche of public shaming which might end up costing him or her a job and friends. The home monitoring system can avert a burglary or a refrigerator full of spoiled food. The goal of this chapter, however, is to encourage us as designers to shift our perspective of technology from a tool, or a component to part of a dynamic system that can and will evolve and change. So, when using or incorporating current technologies into our design proposals, we must consider them dynamically and as part of a larger network. Networks can be static, but more often than not they are dynamic and operate much like a system with different elements moving into the network, affecting its operation and move out of it. The potential of mapping and visualization to uncover and expand the many nodes that that are a part of a network are explored in this chapter as a way to encourage new associations and connections within ideation. Specific methods include critical cartography, and correlational research as well as visual and lateral thinking. Additional sidebars dive deeper into the way that readers might use these techniques to more critically evaluate and consider design ideas.
