Excerpt from Jessica Helfand, "Design and the Play Instinct: Morality, Mediocrity and Mischief." Print, 48:2 (March/April 1994) 98-105.


The great promise of computers in general (and, I might add, multimedia in particular) lies in their ability to enhance the way we communicate with one another, and with the technology that serves us. Is a computer merely a tool? Is it an international language? A boon or an impediment to creativity? Can we use computers to come up with new ideas, or merely to execute existing ones? Reports differ, but what remains true is the degree to which we are coming to depend upon them--in our banks, our museums, our supermarkets, our airports and train terminals, our schools and libraries, our offices and our homes. For designers, the computer is, in effect, the canvas of the twenty-first century. It touches everything we do. It intrigues us, captivates us, puzzles us. It frustrates us. But one thing is certain: it is not going to go away. What we do with it, how we employ its potential and deploy our own will have both significant and far-reaching consequences for our profession, and will ultimately help to determine ways in which we might push technology -- and ourselves -- even further.

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