One of the Culprits Behind PRISM? Design Thinking (Really)

 

As details of the National Security Agency’s PRISM program came out – alongside concerns about democracy, freedom, state surveillance and the complicity of corporations — something else was revealed.

It’s about the ways in which digital technologies are fundamentally reformulating the ways in which design — a new kind of design born out of digital culture — now organizes and impacts the way we live. 

PRISM actually tells us something about design in the 21st century: It tells us that design is increasingly about systems, increasingly about processes, and the way these interface with the real world.

Take the designs of the hardware, software, and services that companies like Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google offer. These companies provide virtual worlds that we find ourselves enmeshed in: places that we can’t get out of, like Apple’s Mac OS, iOS, iTunes and iPhone, or Google’s services that link activities like search, calendar, documents, email, chat, and so on.

For the rest of the story: http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/06/the-real-culprit-behind-prism-design-thinking-yes/