Digital interdependence and how to design for it

This article is about interdependence and what that means for design. It is about how computers, in particular those that are networked, have the potential to make global relations more apparent to us. And it is about how we, as interaction designers and design researchers, use this knowledge to support lifestyles in which these diverse connections are acknowledged and celebrated. What happens to interaction design if we keep social and causal links in the foreground and look beyond user experience? In these pages, I argue that it means lifting our heads from our computer screens and taking a whole-cost view of our work. And it means designing with networks to stress our interdependence and drive recognition of it.