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Ask HN: What pressing world problems should a graphic designer work on?

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Re: Ask HN: What pressing world problems should a graphic designer work on?

#21

Post by le-mark »

jbob2000 wrote: post #18
evanwolf wrote: post #5

Healthcare user experience sucks. Last century kind of sucks. Find a job at Cerner or Epic who account for more than half of all hospital information systems and help clinicians avoid tragic errors, make faster and better decisions, understand health records more clearly, capture ideas/observations/memories.

I just left a healthcare company very similar to Cerner/Epic. The healthcare user experience sucks because the parties involved want it to suck. Older doctors are highly resistant to change and will look for any opportunity to condemn your product. The nurse's unions will stop you in your tracks for taking away duties that a nurse should be doing (we had a client tell us we couldn't auto-fill date fields with today's…

Cerners longtime CEO and founder recently passed away. It's unfortunate one of his legacies will be how NOT to communicate via email[1]. It's also unfortunate the culture he fostered never erred far from this aggressive, intimidating, almost abusive pattern. It was one of the most toxic environments I ever worked in[2].

[1] http://holtz.com/blog/business/threats-and-intimidation-wont...

[2] source: me, contractor 2015-2016.

Re: Ask HN: What pressing world problems should a graphic designer work on?

#23

Post by twic »

pantsoff wrote: post #22

get a real job and make something of actual value designers only have a place in a society in times excess you are excess. Get a real job, you weakling

I might not have put it like that myself, but it could well be the case that as a graphic designer in a rich country, the most effective way for you to move the needle is to earn lots of money and give it away efficiently:

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/xw83ak/effective-...

Re: Ask HN: What pressing world problems should a graphic designer work on?

#24

Post by taheca »

Hey there... There are a LOT of ideas out there (for example, I have a vision of a mentoring platform that is stuck in my head).

The thing is... like others on this thread have said, there is a ton of demand. So what interests you?

I have been getting involved with local politics recently, and there is a HUGE need for designers for political clubs, and organizations.

I'd say find something you are passionate about and start volunteering, and if you want to help Progressive Democrats then DM me!

Re: Ask HN: What pressing world problems should a graphic designer work on?

#25

Post by seanmcdirmid »

zavulon wrote: post #17

I work for a company called Mark43. We make software to help police officers do their jobs more efficiently - our applications literally help save lives. There's a lot of interesting design challenges - for example, emergency dispatchers look at our CAD (computer aided dispatch) software for many hours on large monitors.. how do you design it so their eyes don't get tired? And then cops look at the same software on t…

Why do you call the position "product designer" when it is definitely asking for UX designers? I mean, when I think "product designer" I think industrial design, but this is clearly on the software side.

Ah, I guess this is common confusion; from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_design:

> Product design is sometimes confused with (and certainly overlaps with) industrial design, and has recently become a broad term inclusive of service, software, and physical product design. Industrial design is concerned with bringing artistic form and usability, usually associated with craft design and ergonomics, together in order to mass-produce goods.[4] Other aspects of product design include engineering design, particularly when matters of functionality or utility (e.g. problem-solving) are at issue, though such boundaries are not always clear.[5]

Re: Ask HN: What pressing world problems should a graphic designer work on?

#26

Post by nerdyworm »

Healthcare! My company is currently looking for a designer that wants to make healthcare beautiful, easy to use, and less error prone. If you really want to dive into a company that is making a difference and really cares about changing things for the better shoot me an email benjamin at triceimaging.com

Re: Ask HN: What pressing world problems should a graphic designer work on?

#27

Post by cirrus-clouds »

If there is a cause or issue you feel strongly about, is there a way to illuminate or explain this issue using a combination of graphics and text, in a way that doesn't mislead?

I'm not a graphic designer, but during the recent UK election, I created a site to dissuade people from voting for the Conservative party. One issue I wrote about was our method of voting in the UK. Here is a (fairly rubbish) graphic trying to highlight the results of the 2015 UK election. The fact is that many people simply don't know how our electoral system works or what it's flaws are. Is this diagram clear without any context? (Probably not!)

https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1000/1*OXaiFJ49RtESX0Qjl...

Here is the article in which the graphic appeared giving additional context:

https://medium.com/@dontvoteconservativeuk/uk-general-electi...

Often it's impossible to explain a topic or idea without supporting visuals.

Being able to explain things clearly with both text and graphics (whether for campaigning or teaching or persuasion) is a really valuable skill.

If that appeals to you, perhaps this is an avenue you could pursue? But you'll have to find the cause, topic or idea that inspires you.

Re: Ask HN: What pressing world problems should a graphic designer work on?

#29

Post by Eridrus »

zavulon wrote: post #17

I work for a company called Mark43. We make software to help police officers do their jobs more efficiently - our applications literally help save lives. There's a lot of interesting design challenges - for example, emergency dispatchers look at our CAD (computer aided dispatch) software for many hours on large monitors.. how do you design it so their eyes don't get tired? And then cops look at the same software on t…

> how do you make a notification "suspect is armed" stand out so they notice it among all other data?

Can we make "please don't shoot random black people" a notification that they'll notice?

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