"Life and Death Design" Book Club
summary
A book club walks through Katie Swindler’s Life and Death Design, arguing acute stress unfolds in fast phases that demand specific design responses: startle reflex avoidance, clear microcopy, and human contact for crisis moments (Robinhood case where a young trader misread “buying power” and died). Examples: a clinical consent form redrawn into comic steps that boosts comprehension, an Indonesian booking app rebuilt after local testing, and Apollo 13’s binder-driven redundancies and training. Session uses a mirror board and stresses fight flight or freeze as actionable design constraints.
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chapters (9)
- 0:00Introduction and welcome
- 3:59What is stress and its types
- 14:33Brain response to acute stress
- 25:08Intuition vs research in design
- 32:00Design harm and stress triggers
- 38:09Designing for high-stress moments
- 45:08Encouraging user heroism
- 55:05Designing for resilience and improvisation
- 58:22Closing and resources
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