Before you make a thing
For his course on Technology & Society, Jentery Sayers has created a document entitled “Before you make a thing” that is a fantastic overview of how to critically approach designing and making with technology. The guide is divided into three sections: Theories and Concepts, Practices, and Prototyping Techniques. Here are a few of my favorite bits:
Examine the “default settings” of technologies; doing so asks for whom, by whom, and under what assumptions they are designed, and who they may exclude and enable. All projects have intended audiences, even if those intentions are not always conscious or deliberate.
Remember that data are produced, not given or captured; doing so emphasizes how this becomes that, or how data is structured, collected, and expressed for interpretation.
Conjecture with affordances; doing so demonstrates how design is relational. It happens between people, environments, and things; it’s not just a quality or property of objects.
Make a useless or disinterested version of your project; doing so may underscore the creative and critical dimensions of technology and society. After all, not all technologies must increase productivity or efficiency. Consider the roles of technologies in art, theory, and storytelling.
There’s a wealth of great guidance for both craft and thinking here, along with links to source materials for more in-depth study — go and read the whole thing!