by John Thackara (MIT Press, 2005)

John Thackara has been tracing the cutting edge of design and sustainability long enough to see how our cultivated obsessions with technology actually operate on a grand scale. Rather than microscopes, he contends, we need "macroscopes"€� to see the patterns and implications of all our small design decisions. Design exists, after all, to serve human ends, and some of Thackara's most compelling and critical ideas focus on the concept of designing less for technology and more for people.

"Although many people perceive design to be all about appearances, design is not just about the way things look. Design is also about the way things are used; how they are communicated to the world; and the way they are produced. The dance of the big and the small entails a new kind of design. It involves a relationship between subject and object and a commitment to think about the consequences of design actions before we take them, in a state of mind - design mindfulness - that values place, time, and cultural difference."