Nostalgic Design: Rhetoric, Memory, and Democratizing Technology

by William C. Kurlinkus

Overview

Nostalgic Design presents a rhetorical analysis of twenty-first century nostalgia and a method for designers to create more inclusive technologies. Nostalgia is a form of resistant commemoration that can tell designers what users value about past designs, why they might feel excluded from the present, and what they wish to recover in the future. By examining the nostalgic hacks of several contemporary technical cultures, from female software programmers who knit on the job to anti-vaccination parents, Kurlinkus argues that innovation without tradition will always lead to technical alienation, whereas carefully examining and layering conflicting nostalgic traditions can lead to technological revolution.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822965527
Publisher:	University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date:	12/18/2018
Series:	Composition, Literacy, and Culture Series
Edition description:	1
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

William Kurlinkus is an assistant professor of English and the director of technical writing and communication at the University of Oklahoma.
 

Table of Contents

Contents
 
Preface. Why Nostalgia? Why Here? Why Now?
 
Part I. Identifying Nostalgic Conflicts
Chapter 1. Nostalgic Design: Between Innovation and Tradition
Chapter 2. Nostalgic Resistances: Identifying Craft Resistances in Everyday Workplaces
 
Part II. Mediating Nostalgia
Chapter 3. Nostalgic Deliberations: What I Mean When I Say “Democratizing Technology”
Chapter 4. Nostalgic Mediation: Asking the Right Questions in Vaccine Communication
Chapter 5. Nostalgic Negotiations: Adapting, Adopting, and Refusing Client Expertise
 
Part III. Designing for Nostalgia
Chapter 6. Nostalgic UX: Designing for Future Memories
 
Afterword. From English Major to Designer
 

Editorial Reviews

Recognizing nostalgia as the creative glue that binds emerging design processes in areas ranging from crafting communities, anti-vaccination discourse, UX design, and more,Nostalgic Design validates and empowers non-experts in these processes, and provides for experts a means by which they come to value the design knowledge of those outside of their professions. As a roadmap to successful future collaborations, this book has much potential in professional and academic settings alike.” —Ben McCorkle, Ohio State University at Marion
 

From the Publisher