A6MichaelMinerva

A6MichaelMinerva

To-Do

please create an answer via the form for this assignment addressing the following issues:

• which was the most interesting idea/concept you learned from the article? what is the relationship of this idea/concept to your own work and own thinking?
• which is the most prominent meta-design environment you can think off? Why?
• analyze one computational environment in detail from a meta-design perspective? (if you can't think of a better one: analyze Microsoft-Word)
• argue in which sense the American constitution may be considered as a success example for meta-design

Most interesting idea/concept

It is quite true that the end user knows best. Except in the case where the designer is creating software for their own consumption, it is normally the case that the designer is not an expert in the field that the software will be used. No matter how much research the designer does, and no matter how much the designer incorporates the user in the design process, the designer will never have the same understanding of the context an application will be used as the end-user. To this end, the idea of creating software from a meta-design perspective makes a great deal sense. If we create a system that allows the true expert to modify the software to fit his personal needs, then those who know best how the software should function are able to be involved in shaping the environment they will work in.

Most Prominent Example

A prominent example of a meta-design environment is Eclipse. To begin, Eclipse allows the user to customize which windows will be shown and where, so that the designer can decide which information is most relevant to their current endeavor, and customize the system to represent their needs. Also, the system is very much open for extension. The user may either download or create patches to the system to add or amend the functionality of the system (to for example run a different kind of unit test). This example is interesting because it represents one of the few cases where the software designer and end-user have the same domain knowledge.

Detailed Analysis

In general Microsoft Word is not a meta-design environment but it does incorporate meta-design ideas in certain areas. For example, the spell checker has an option to add words to the dictionary. This allows the end-user to customize what the dictionary feels is in an error. It would be quite annoying for a novel designer to be constantly told that the name of their main character was a spelling error, but thankfully Microsoft Word allows the user to modify this system by adding words to the spell check dictionary. Also, the layout of tools in the system may be heavily modified by the end user. By a combination of drag and drop and selection from the view menu, the user may customize what tools show up on the screen and where. This allows the user to in someways, design the user interface of the system they are using. The user may add tools that are often used to the most easily accessible place on their screen and may move tools they never use off the screen. While these sorts of tools are quite useful and certainly represent the meta-design perspective, the system as a whole can not be extended by the user. There are no built in systems for a Word user to add new functionality to the system or change the core functionality of the system. Most of the modification the user can do is either aesthetic or customization.

American constitution as Meta-Design

The American constitution may be a better example of a successful meta-design then any piece of software that has ever been created. For all of the complaints that may be levied against the functionality of our current democracy, I would find it hard to argue that the constitution did not create a dynamic framework that would allow unforeseen future users the power and flexibility in use, to create whatever democracy would fit their needs. While there are a reasonable number of procedural directives in the constitution, most of the this document is dedicated to limiting what the government may impose upon its citizens and providing the tools necessary to build a functioning democracy. Further, the constitution even allows for modification of any element contained within itself. If all of the states ratify the amendment, any part of the constitution may be removed, improved or amended. The only way that the constitution fails from a meta-design perspective is that the there is a level of obfuscation between the framework created by the constitution and the true end-user. Because the constitution has directed us toward a representative democracy, the end-user of the framework instructed by the constitution are our elected politicians. In this sense, the true user, the citizen, must go through a third party, to design their government and design their design environment. In this sense the constitution fails as a meta-design environment.