A11 Analyzing the Hoarding "Dis-Organizing System"

One of the readings for the March 18 lecture on Personal Categories is

Matax-Cols, D. (2014).  Hoarding Disorder, New England Journal of Medicine.

If you read it carefully, you'll see that this article explains the things that people most often hoard, why they hoard them, and the methods or principles by which the hoarded resources end up in the hoarder's living space.  But the article doesn't follow the "design dimensions" framework that you learned earlier this semester, and you would understand it better if it did (TDO Chapter 2, January 23):

We introduce eight dimensions for designing and comparing organizing systems:
● Resource dimension: What is being organized?
● Purpose dimension: Why is it being organized?
● Interaction dimension: What interactions or services are supported?
● Organization dimension: Which organizing principles are used?
● User dimension: For whom is the system designed?
● Organizer dimension: Who or what does the organizing?
● Time dimension: When is it being organized?
● Place dimension: Where is it organized?

So to ensure that you understand hoarding disorders and to get some practice in using the design questions framework that you will use when you write your case study, your assignment is to describe the "disorganizing system" for hoarders that is organized using the eight design dimensions. Use the Matax-Cols article as a reference; the tables and sidebars in the article should be very helpful, especially Table 2.

Not all of the design dimensions are equally important in describing the "disorganizing system" for hoarders, so emphasize the important ones.  You should be able to write a compelling "case study" in about 1000 words.  (A good test here might be to ask a roommate or friend to read it and see if your report clearly explains the important aspects of hoarding disorders).