Open design now

Creation & Co: User participation indesign

Pieter Jan StappersFroukje Sleeswijk VisserSandra Kistemaker

Design Strategy (Ambient Media)Presentation by Mariana Varela

Creation & Co: User participation indesign

The roles of the designer, the client (or producer, or manufacturer) and the user are being shaken up in industrial practices that have, until now, been oriented mainly towards mass production.

What is it about?

No-designers becomingYes-Designers

Some of the most important ambitions of Open Design is to break down the barriers between designers and end-users, making it possible for non-designers become designers.

Users

Designers

No-designers becomingYes-Designers

How?

Having end users fabricate the products they need, like a craft.

New, craft-based industries are making their business, either locally oriented or operating globally over the internet.

No-designers becomingYes-Designers

But...

Is it possible that open design can be used for making more complex products, such as washing machines, cars and jet planes?

Things are changing

The roles of designer, client, user and end user are being shaken up in these more complex areas of design and product development.

The designer is no longer ‘the creative guy’ The user is not anymore only a ‘passive, un-critical consumer’

The roles between these two are starting to change and mix into new ways.

How this roles are changing?

The traditional division of roles in the design process are changing.

One way is to call tech-savvy users contribute to the process of generating solutions, and develop new features for products.

Other way is context mapping, involving end users as experts in their own experience, in order to help them become competent partners within the design team.

Distinction between co-creation and co-design

Co-creationCo-creation indicates a collaborative creative effort, either large or small, and often localized.

How is co-creation different from collaboration? It is a special case of collaboration where the intent is to create something that is not known in advance.

Is asking the user: What can we create for you?

Co-designCo-design refers to co-creation used in the course of the design process, preferably from beginning to end, across the whole span of a design process.

The article focuses on context mapping, a specific aspect of co-design, in which end users are assigned the role of expert informant.

Is asking the user: How can we create this product for you?

According to Churchman: "(Co-design) begins when first you view the world through the eyes of another."

Different rolesThe traditional view of design identifies three roles:The user, who buys and will live with the productThe designer, who conceives the productThe client, who manufactures and distributes the product.

For instance, the client conducts market research, spots an opportunity in the market, gives a brief to the designer which specifies design requirements, and expects to receive a concept design in return.

But now the roles are changing...

In co-creation, roles and responsibilities which had previously been thought of as separate are interacting, merging, or even being swapped back and forth between the parties; some roles are disappearing in the form in which we knew them, and new roles are appearing.

Why are these roles changing?

The people controlling the design process are seeing that the user can be a source of valuable input, not

just a channel for directing output.

user

designerclient

Users are getting savvierThe internet has made it possible for users to be more informed, giving them opportunities to be involved and have a say in what is made for them.

Designers getting savvier tooThe designer is becoming an hybrid that has to incorporates more and more areas of expertise: part creator, part researcher, part facilitator, part process manager.

The key is that designers find their own area of experitise.

Design clients are diversifying

Everyday problems and complex problems are claiming more and better design solutions.

Large projects as the design of hospitals, or services involve multiple clients at the same time and from very different areas.

They want solution-oriented thinking. Referred to collectively as ‘service design’ or ‘design thinking’,).

SOLVE MY PROBLEM NOW!

Let's make a hospital! Who is the client?- The government- The ministries involved- The sponsors- The construction company

The relationships between the designers, users and clients are changing.

The designer–client relationshipThe designer–client relationship is no longer as simple asProblem → concept design → solution

In the Dashboard User Guide, Stevens & Watson distinguish 5 degrees:

1. prescribing (one concept to deliver on the brief) 2. menu (several concepts to choose from)3. co-creation DIY (collaboration as equals)4. assistance (the client receiving design coaching and help),5. DIY (the client does the design while the designer observes and interjects comments as needed).

The client–user relationshipThe client–user relationship is opening up in open design and meta-design.

In open design, manufacturing options are becoming widespread and accessible.

In meta-design, products are made with sufficient adaptability to leave a number of final design choices to the user.

Ronen Kadushin

Crocs

The designer–user relationshipThe designer–user relationship is opening up strongly throughout the entire design process.

Frequently, users can participate in correcting the design, providing ideas for solutions, or evaluating concepts.

They are rarely involved in deciding what will be made (as would be the case of participatory design).

How they started paying attentionThe complaints department in many companies was the place that received most input from the users, in the form of returned products.

In many cases, the product was returned not because of a product defect, but because the user could not figure out how to operate it, or because of disappointment.

How it evolvedIn the 80s and 90s, consultations with users moved up earlier and earlier, first advancing through sales and marketing, then usability testing, and finally concept evaluation.

This helped companies launch better products by eliminating problems earlier in the design process.

What is context mapping?Context mapping method help users to observe and reflect on parts of their lives, and to use these reflections in making a ‘map’ that reflects the various facets of their experiences.

This map provides the design team with information, inspiration and empathy, feeding further development of the concept design into a product

Principles of context mappingThe approach is built on four main principles:

1. Users are involved as the experts on their own experience.

2. By self-observation and reflection is possible to extract the most important points of their expertise.

3. The design team uses the information on the context of use like a map: it should provide multifaceted, rich and supportive leads to explore the experiential context.

4. Facilitating this process requires a mixture of design competencies and research skills (where is the solution, how can it be made)

ExampleThe example on the book is based on a project of a company that offered a large range of hearing protectors.

The brainstorming sessions about which product to make where made by one agency, the concept was build by another and the technical design by another; and then handed back to the main company (note all the specializations of different design agencies)

To be able to step into the shoes of the users, designers made a context mapping study and after that, an experiment.

After doing this they found new directions for innovation at different levels.

ConclusionsAbout the roles in the design process

In many industries, they know that the traditional separation of roles must change, and is changing little by little, but is not easy.

Why it is not easy to change?

… they don't have enough money or don't know how much it costs (to bring users to help)… they don't know how a good design approach can contribute… they lack of innovative user-driven attitudes.

ConclusionsAbout companies putting this change of roles in practice

It is more difficult for the larger industries- user participation in their research budgetsbut- design process are connected only through formal documents and fail in having a rich communication.

For smaller companies, who have much smaller budgets, - often build a stronger relationship with their users. - they may not count with the aid of appropriate methods (tech/money problem)

Fin.