Vision labs: seeing UCD as a relational practice (original) (raw)
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Proceedings of the 20th Australasian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction Designing for Habitus and Habitat - OZCHI '08, 2008
Relational aspects in user-centered design, UCD, are largely overlooked in the literature. We use criticism of UCD to facilitate a discussion of how discourse, activities, and materials give shape to user involvement in design activities. Drawing on experiments with the workshop format for devising innovations and creative solutions with users, we introduce some criteria and points of interest in the development of a workshop format we call Vision Labs.
User Centered Design in the Wild
2011
Modern hi-tech product development is becoming increasingly complex, posing difficulties for achieving technically sound products, that also address the user needs. User Centered Design (UCD) methodologies have been developed, but are not easy to fit into modern industrial practice. We describe UCD practice in new product development (NPD) practice at Oce with a distributed R&D developing high tech products. The UCD professionals are embedded in NPD teams. Specifically we describe the social nature of product development in large close coupled teams, whereby the contribution of specialists is orchestrated whilst developing, and are enacted into prototypes. It was found that boundary objects (like prototypes) that depict the intended outcome strongly contribute UCD, just as boundary experiences . These concern events that can be experienced and reflected on by all specialists involved. To orchestrate the contributions of specialists, a powerful tool is creating a product story . This...
2010
User centred design research methodologies are usually adopted to inform design practice. Here, this paper proposes a case for the potentially key role of design practice, and the value of artefacts, as a fundamental methodological approach to user-centred research. This paper reflects on the evolution of design research and the growing recognition of the value of interdisciplinary user-centred research methodologies in product development. The paper will describe three practice based design research case studies, directed by the author, that highlight the challenges and limitations of more traditional user-centred research methodologies. The paper will demonstrate and help define the role of design as research (critical design), and the key role of artefacts as tools to access tacit knowledge and as an aid to communication in the context of research. There is a wide spectrum of ways in which users are involved in user-centred design activity. Generally users are consulted about their needs and involved at specific times during the design process typically in the early stages to establish requirements and later for usability testing. There currently exists few case studies that challenge and clearly define the value of user engagement in design research and articulates designing as research. This paper presents a case for a user-centred design research method where 'users' and other stakeholders are involved as concurrent partners with the designers throughout the design process.
Users as Designers is the main design philosophy of Waag Society. It states that real users should be the ones to define design requirements. When the user and designer work together according to this design philosophy, they both take on multiple roles throughout the design process. This philosophy relies strongly on empathy, subjectivity of interpretation, personal intuition, human interaction and trust, with research integrated in the development process and development being the focus of its research. By involving prospective users in the design process, the results are likely to bring meaningful perspectives and options into the hands of people. This leads to better systems that are designed with the user in mind. Adoption and appropriation of the results become far more likely than by using traditional methods of development. In this publication, Waag Society focuses on a hands-on description of its methods. Hereby, we hope to spread the use of Users as Designers; improve our own understanding by sharing and learning from the responses, and eventually sowing and growing seeds of change that we hope will flourish.
Exploring User-Centred Design in Practice: Some Caveats
Knowledge, Technology & Policy, 2009
This paper provides a nuanced perspective on the topic of user-centred design (UCD) in the humancomputer interaction (HCI) field. After a brief outline of its emergence, we describe some of the central tenets of the approach, using the process model of Gulliksen et al. (Behav Inf Technol 22(6):397-409, 2003) as a welldocumented exemplar. We then examine in more detail some of the difficulties one can encounter in performing user-centred design (UCD), illuminating these issues through vignettes from specific projects in which we have been involved. In this paper, we focus on issues that can arise in working with children and with people of differing mental abilities. Our argument is that, while a user-centred perspective is required at all times in the design team, the forms of participation of users in the design process needs to fit the context and can vary significantly from that presented as the prototypical UCD approach.
Building knowledge on Universal Design through direct user contact in design workshops
For the creation of inclusive design solutions, designers require relevant knowledge about a diversity of users throughout the design process. Besides understanding users' needs and expectations, the ways in which users perceive and experience the environment contain valuable knowledge for designers. Since users' perceptions and experiences are mainly tacit by nature, they are much more difficult to communicate and therefore more difficult to externalize. Hence, more insight is needed into the ways designers can build knowledge on Universal Design through direct user contact. In a project called 'Light up for all' architecture students are asked to design a light switch and socket, elegant, usable and understandable to the greatest extent possible by everyone. Two workshops with user/experts are organized in the first stages of the design process in which students could gain insight into users' experiences and perceptions through direct contact. Three data collection techniques are used to analyze the teams' design processes: (1) a design diary, (2) observations of the workshops and (3) a focus group. By means of analyzing collected qualitative data, we have identified three different design aspects that affect designers' UD knowledge building process. First, findings give indications on values and limitations of working with selected design artefacts when externalizing users' experiences. Second, the value of stories clearly affected designers' deeper understanding about users' experiences. Finally, results show that in some situations, designers encountered contradictory information between observations and verbal conversations. These insights may help researchers to better understand designers' process of building knowledge on UD from users' experiences and perceptions, which may result in better incorporating users' experiences when designing for everyone.
Co-Designing Visions, Uses, and Applications
An emergent idea in contemporary design discourse is that of users becoming actors in the design processes, especially those of ICT's and digital applications. It is clear however that users, or their wishes or needs, seldom initiate developments, nor are they in a position to suggest design or development processes. Our work concentrates on exploring ways in which the emerging possibilities of digitalization could be discussed, informed and envisioned with nonexperts, before concrete product and business plans enter the stage. We will like to argue that it is possible to envision ways in which design research can give people tools to become more proactive rather than just reactive towards technological development. The paper illustrates some of our work in progress in order to understand this challenges, the work done with different communities, and the lessons learned along the way, in the context of co-designing visions for everyday life applications.