Critical Design
A set of critical design concepts exploring the social issues associated with the mica mining industry.
Overview of the Issue
The aim of this exercise was to explore critical designs targeting a social issue of choice. I chose to think about the mica industry and the issues surrounding the mining of mica. Mica is an element that is widely used in the following industries:
● Automotive Industry
● Cosmetics and Personal Care Industry
● Electronics Industry
● Paints and Coatings Industry
● Construction Industry and others.
Within this, I decided to target the impact of children’s rights - many consumers remain unaware that the mining of mica involves children working as laborers, the percentage of this occurrence being higher in those countries that are underdeveloped or still developing. Being from India, I decided to do research on case studies of this exploitation that happen in the resource-rich states of Jharkhand and Bihar. This has been a prevalent practice in India due to these states having the largest mica mining in the world. Even though people are aware of it, there have been no real steps taken by the government to free these children and their families from this cycle of oppression. I looked at a research paper from “Terres Des Hommes,” an international non-governmental organization that is working towards eliminating child exploitation. It has a long-standing presence in India because of the large number of children caught in this practice.
The primary causes of children having no choice but to work (right from ages as young as 5) are high poverty rates in these regions due to government corruption and commercial exploitation, poor educational policies, low wages and poor law enforcement.
Process
While thinking about how to ideate on this issue, the list of items mica is used in gave me a lot of opportunity to consider different devices. There was the question of whether or not to hold end users accountable for things that they were largely unaware of when it came to the unethical sourcing of companies they buy products from.
Children are exploited and suffer physical abuse and harm, psychological fear and uncertainty of future, stunted social development, menial pay, and loss of opportunity to get an education due to all the time spent at work.
Preliminary Ideation
1. Mica is used in wifi networks → for every app download a person wants to make onto a device, they have to go to a physical “App Store” with the router number or password as confirmation. This is to make them work for the services they need.
2. Mica used in lamps as insulation → Lamps powered by “sift” remote control that has to be kept in a box of small “energizers” to charge. In order to keep the lamp running and
avoid it from blowing something, the user must remove the stuck energizers as fast as possible.
3. Mica in personal care products → Hair dryer that keeps burning hotter until you regularly deposit a small amount of money to cool it down.
6. Mica used in unbreakable safety goggles → For every damage the goggles take on behalf of the user, a tally is etched onto the skin of their palm.
7. Mica in Cosmetics → Eyeshadow palette that has mica in it
that matches the color shades to reference pictures of bruises on children’s skin.
Reflection on Sketches
I had merely been using these sketches as a way of thinking about how I could use different devices to tackle different facets of exploitation that come with this child labor. My ideas above are quite shallow and straightforward, so I thought about what I could do to highlight underlying issues in a more subtle way to tap on them through the design.
There were a few questions and concerns that I thought I could address while thinking about designs:
● What do people think of when they see the terms “cruelty-free?” Is their understanding limited to animal testing without knowing about sourcing?
● How could I highlight the notion of financial inequality among people who are privileged?
● What are the repercussions of beauty influencers choosing to remain silent for the sake of beauty?
● Activism vs. Social Image
● Empowerment of workers through educational and financial literacy
Final Concepts
Concept 1 | Manic Makeup
This first concept deals with targeting the lack of activism from the beauty industry and its consumers, especially when it comes to influencers.
I proposed a line of cosmetics that restrict face movement. Most makeup nowadays such as foundation, eyeshadow, blush, body glitter, highlighter etc. contain mica for its shimmery effect.
The cosmetics would work in such a way: the more of these cosmetics the person would apply, the harder it becomes for their facial muscles to move. In order to make sure that their makeup stays perfectly on the entire day, they must move their faces as little as possible. This in turn means that it’s harder for them to talk.
Social Issue: A lot of people buy makeup from high-end brands without caring to know about where the materials are sourced from. Even so, they often choose to remain silent without calling out problems with these companies for the sake of
brand-name and their social image.
Social Norm: This makeup line is meant to make people think about the importance of their voices. Makeup is often seen as a tool of liberation and expression, which is very ironic considering that it comes about as a result of children trapped in an unforgiving trade. It made me question - would people be willing to sacrifice their words and freedom to speak and emote altogether for the sake of their image? If one does not use their voice for good, what good is their voice for?
Concept 2 | Application Control
Mica is a metal that’s also used in mobile phones, so I thought of doing something with it too. A student would have their laptop activity synchronized with their cellular device.
When they're doing homework and decide to procrastinate often by looking at their phone, the application they most frequently go to would ask them to solve a related question as a password to be able to access it. There is no catch here - they are allowed to look up the answer through other means and answer it. The only requirement is that the question must be answered correctly to access the phone.
Social Issue: Children caught in the mining industry often have to be deprived of an education due to all the time they spend at work. They are exhausted and also cannot afford to pay to go to school.
Social Norm: I wanted to highlight how privileged students take their education for granted. By forcing them to go back to their work, or make them answer questions, it highlights the frustration they have with having to learn, and also points out the hypocrisy of many that procrastinate on their work even when they have time. They say that they are “drained out” after doing nothing but wasting time on their phones the whole day instead of studying.
It draws the contrast between the child laborers who work hard to have a future where they can study and be free, and a privileged society that sees education as a burden.
Concept 3 | Coffee Crisis
Social Issue: Child labourers in the industry are paid unfair wages for the amount of work they’re put through. As if recruiting children from ages as young as 5 wasn’t bad enough, they are only paid a quarter per day, having to work all 7 days a week. They put in countless hours, but get close to nothing in return - all of which goes towards supporting their families with dry and minimal food. Meanwhile, the mica is then sold for thousands of dollars.
Social Norm: I chose to design with coffee in mind because mica is used in making coffee machines. I drew the contrast of how some people drink lots of coffee to energize themselves and boost productivity at work, while these children slave endlessly for no real reward for their efforts. Through this system, users spend the money they earn to buy the coffee, but get only a small percentage of what they actually ask for. This plays on the inequality aspect of putting in work to earn the money, but not get that money’s worth. It does the job of energizing you, sure, but it’s not enough and gives no satisfaction.
Concept 4 | Clear Cosmetics
For this concept, I wanted to know what it would be like to give users full freedom of choice, and to still see if they were considerate in their decision making.
This concept is pretty simple - people could go on a website and customize makeup bags for themselves. They could put in things like their skin tone, eye color, preferences, etc. and the service would recommend products on the basis of what
would suit them best.
“Clear Cosmetics” will provide full transparency about the products and how they are sourced. The catch is that it may recommend things that will not complement the user’s requirements but are ethically sourced, and vice versa.
It is up to the user to make their choices and decide if they want to go through the trouble of considering that information or thinking about themselves.
Social Issue: The issue that I tackled here is transparency of companies when it comes to their sourcing. The supply chain history is very well hidden by companies that unethically source their mica in order to bypass laws and questioning. When people see a product being “cruelty-free,” they think of it in terms of animal testing alone, and do not consider it beyond that.
Social Norm: Through this service, users will have full transparency about details and autonomy on their decisions with no consequence. It is up to them about where their priorities lie when it comes to luxury and convenience. This forces them to bring these issues to the forefront and make a choice.
Reflection
This was overall a pretty interesting project to work on. I picked a topic that I felt strongly about because it is something that is actively happening in my country, and is quite heartbreaking. Doing research about it and getting to learn more about how deep the exploitation in the trade runs was very enlightening to me, and I referred to different papers and sources to understand the issue more than the surface level. Once that was done, it was time to think about how UX fit into this scope. The critical design and design fiction papers I read were so interesting to me because of how “out there” they are. It gave me a sense of having no constraints, which is why in the beginning I was quite confused on what I was supposed to do.
I looked several times at the website with projects by Dunne and Raby to try and understand how one could raise questions through design. They were all a medium of thought and reflection, and so creative as well.
There were times where I had doubts about what extent one could go in order to make a point, or where the limit lay (eg. physical pain). My thoughts may have been a little all over the place because of the different points I had to go off of, and I had a little difficulty fleshing them out into designs, but overall I think it was an enjoyable process, regardless of what the outcomes are. I’ll learn when I know where I went wrong.