Comments on: Designing for and Against the Manufactured Normalcy Field

By: Chris Anderson

Chris Anderson — Fri, 06 Sep 2013 14:56:07 +0000

Me weird thing is the supply chain. It’s been normalized so how do we re-weird it again, and do we even want to? Can we make the supply chain transparent without making it weird?

By: Rob Wilcox

Rob Wilcox — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 06:07:56 +0000

Very nice model.

Our experiences are modulated by familiarity and novelty. Familiarity is built on the corpus of our life experience. As you note, almost every experience is a mix of both, and one aim of design is to alter the balance for a collection of individuals.

By: Jessy Kate Schingler

Jessy Kate Schingler — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 19:33:13 +0000

very interesting article! i like the “weirding” process described at the end very much.

as someone who wasn’t there, i initially assumed the term “manufactured normalcy” referred to the manufactured construct of society that we all participate in, and, specifically, the tension between the innovation/evolution of that society, and its coherence.

even so, i would have thought the goal is not to CONFORM to this field (as I felt was being suggested by Rao), but, by recognizing our tendency to minimize discomfort, i would propose the goal be to strengthen our ability to make great excursions from these comfortable reference points.

“…In fact the whole point of user experience design is to manufacture the necessary normalcy for a product to succeed and get integrated into the Field”

well, that depends on the goal doesn’t it? 🙂 to the (implicit) point about the power and potential of user experience, shouldn’t we be designing interfaces and processes that balance our need for familiarity with the goal of blowing people’s minds with the power of newness and transformation?

By: Roger Parkinson

Roger Parkinson — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 05:02:05 +0000

What an excellent comment. Should be in a book of quotes somewhere.

By: Ian Sollars

Ian Sollars — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:49:53 +0000

The concept of ‘weirding’ seems very similar to ‘defamiliarization’ as invented by the Russian formalists. I love the way you’ve applied it to modern life, and the rich vein you’ve opened here suggests there’s much gain to be had in continuing your dialogue.

However, at the risk of seeming sarcastic, maybe it would be good to study other, newer aspects of literary theory – as a field of the humanities it’s much-denigrated by ill-informed techies, but what you’ve done here suggests it could be key to developing new insights into how we use technology. This reminds me very much of Steve Jobs now-famous phrase “…technology alone is not enough—it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing.”

By: Venkat

Venkat — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 21:50:36 +0000

Thanks for the PR for the manufactured normalcy meme, and glad the post proved a useful conversation starter for your session. Tim: re: weirding/normalizing sleep, here is a really old post of mine (5 years old) where I took a stab at analyzing "I"... there's a brief discussion of sleep as well. Where is I?"

By: Jim Stogdill

Jim Stogdill — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 19:24:45 +0000

The Conscious I is almost never driving. It is only in our sleep that we can take a brief rest from having to keep up the appearance, to ourselves.

By: Cooper Melgreen

Cooper Melgreen — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 18:08:23 +0000

Language is the ultimate manufactured normalcy field. Look at Siri. Instead of marveling at the fact that a little piece of plastic and metals (or dead dinosaurs and particular rocks) can understand anything we say, it’s simply frustrating because it doesn’t meet our fundamental expectations for language.

By: Tim O'Reilly

Tim O'Reilly — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 13:47:07 +0000

I have always found sleep to be profoundly weird, especially in an urban context. Imagine, for a moment, a great city at night, in which millions of people are just lying there, inert. Why? We have glimmerings of reasons, but the visceral experience of getting sleepy, unable to remain awake despite great effort, remains one of the great challenges to our sense that the conscious “I” is in the driver’s seat.

By: devans00

devans00 — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 07:42:23 +0000

Post made me laugh and gave me a lot of food for thought. I wish I were in the brainstorming session.

I agree with NephilimMuse about clapping. When the audience whistles or (my favorite) woo-hooing to emphasize their delight, it emphasizes the weirdness of the situation.