Session 11
In the last class, we talked about a phenomenon called “social practices.” They refer to everyday practices and the way they are habitually performed in society. They are meaningful practices done by the people in their everyday life. A simple practice like that of just cooking an egg can vary from person to person. In the class, we discussed how students have different ways of cooking that one egg and at the same time will have a reason behind that particular way of performing that practice.
These social practices are made up of three parts: Tools, competence and meaning. Tools are the devices or the utensils needs to carry out those practices, competence is the skill or the way someone carries out those tasks seamlessly and meanings are the values attached to the way a person carries out those practices. At first, it may look like they aren't that many different ways to carry out that one specific practice but in reality, one simple task like that of brushing teeth, can be done by many different approaches. I remember when I was first studying social practices last semester in interaction design, our last assignment was to observe how the people in our family carry out one particular social practice. I choose “dental hygiene” as my social practice and the different ways that one small practice can be carried out was very surprising. From holding your toothbrush to, applying toothpaste before or after wetting your brush, to the many different ways of brushing your teeth to flossing or using mouthwash at the end. Even the meanings behind their ways were varying. One of my sister being a dentist brushes her teeth in a very particularized way, she has a very professional way of using the toothbrush, the reason behind which is “after reading so much about dental problems I can’t go to sleep without knowing I have thoroughly professionally brushed my teeth to prevent cavities.” My mother's reason for using a muswak after brushing her teeth was “Sunat hai.” The meanings behind those actions can vary from being religiously motivated to the ease of someone to carry out that task. After that assignment, Sir Amir asked us to change the tools in the practice and see how the meaning and the competence of the practice will change just because of an addition of another tool.
This addition of tool was for us to know how we as a designer can change practice with an addition of just one tool and how the meaning of that whole practice changes. This is the role of us designers who can add something positive in society and change the practice of something for better.
