Critical Engineering: Deconstruct to construct

   3. The Critical Engineer deconstructs and incites suspicion of rich user
    experiences.

As a design student constantly primed by the institution to create rich user experiences, the notion of deconstruction and suspicion of these experiences comes as an unusual surprise. But perhaps it’s just the nuances of language playing with me here. From my understanding, what Julian, Gordan and Danja mean by this tenet of their Critical Engineering Manifesto is the breaking down of experiences to its basic parts, processes, artifacts, and more in order to establish an understanding of what is really there.

It is only through such understanding of the truth in all its transparency can the true problem spaces be determined, and the appropriate solutions for it.

I can’t help but think of the rich ecosystems that services like Google, Amazon, Facebook, and the other internet giants provide. Although they are prominent and enjoyed in our modern culture, it is only now that we are beginning to fight for an understanding of how these ‘black boxes’ of services create those experiences. As Julian himself puts it, “To find a point of exploit—an entry point—in a black box is to produce knowledge. Sometimes this also reveals how we are being exploited by that black box” (Fortune).

In light of growing tension upon privacy vs. publicity, the NSA (or in China, the Great Firewall), and so on, it seems all the more critical that we observe, question and break down in order to create understanding.

Source(s):
Fortune, Stephen. “Engineering Critically.” Dazed Digital. N.p., June 2013. Web. 28 Aug. 2013. <http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/16269/1/weise7>.