Design knowledge as fast food?

There are may methods to inspire design and to critique design or any kind of project. A deck of card is one such materialization of knowledge.

Methodkit
http://www.methodkit.com/shop/methodkit-for-web-development/

Method cards for Ideo
http://www.ideo.com/work/method-cards/

Yep, a deck of card can be food for thought. But which kind of food for thought is it - slow or fast? Who is consuming it? And why?

Everyday augmented reality

Not only Google glasses, but smartphones are already part of making augmented reality dream real.

When we worked with context photography, we exlored new possibilites for everyday phography experiences. Visual effects based on senorinput from movement, temperature, sound etc. Playing with the digital possibilities of camera technology to achieve a new phototgraphy experience as well as on the resulting pictures.

Today, the camera is used for millions of things that is augmenting and adding to what our own senses can experience. It's like experiencing the world through a whole new set of sensation and perception possibilities.  In the future I want every cartrip to be a backseat adventure through the cameralense, and see the world how it looked a hundred years ago, today, and I want to play with the surroundings and see and change the world. This is also empowering people to see "beyond" what is on the label in the store... and make a change.

Some examples of playing/seeing other things through the camera lense:

Reality mindcraft
Backseatgaming
Context photography
Buycott

And there are millions of apps already....

Pictures taken with the context camera

Design for all...

Design for all.
Aceessability.
People with special needs.

Who have special needs?Why)

A few more people than you think.

- The drunk teenager on the music festival .
(sound, vision, mental impairment)

- The person crossing the street while talking on the phone
(attention difficulties)

- The stressed running person at the airport.
(tunnel vision)

- A man with two shoppingbags in his hands and a stroller with a screaming child.
(physical impairment, attention difficulties)

- and many many more in a variety of situations.....

Life without Internet

Humans are fundamentally social creatures and the internet provides ubiquitous connectedness. But how it is to be unplugged?

"Social media services, however, are not interested in making absence easy. Senders have no way of knowing whether our nonresponsiveness is personal, technical, or something else. The services offer no “vacation mode.” 

Read more at:

http://www.fastcompany.com/3012521/unplug/baratunde-thurston-leaves-the-internet

How can more people contribute to design solutions?

Procumer at Wikipedia:

"Marshall McLuhan and Barrington Nevitt suggested in their 1972 book Take Today, (p. 4) that with electric technology, the consumer would become a producer. In the 1980 book, The Third Wave, futurologist Alvin Toffler coined the term "prosumer" when he predicted that the role of producers and consumers would begin to blur and merge (even though he described it in his book Future Shock from 1970). Toffler envisioned a highly saturated marketplace as mass production of standardized products began to satisfy basic consumer demands. To continue growing profit, businesses would initiate a process of mass customization, that is the mass production of highly customized products.

However, to reach a high degree of customization, consumers would have to take part in the production process especially in specifying design requirements. In a sense, this is merely an extension or broadening of the kind of relationship that many affluent clients have had with professionals like architects for many decades"

Example of procumer projects:

http://www.nesta.org.uk/home1/assets/features/make_things_do_stuff

Related is also:

DIY
"Prosumerise" (i.e. the combined needs of the consumer, prosumer and enterprise)  (from Wikipedia)

Tell me Big data - what will happen?

In the future we actuallly have more tools to understand what will happen and when...
Endless implications for design?

Read more about big data

Run computer run

Interesting Media Arts Festival:

Glitch: Run Computer, run

CALL FOR ARTWORKS

"How do we give value to immaterial goods? How do we buy and sell digital images? What is the relationship between economics and digital aesthetics? How can curators and artists create new platforms and models for the creation of economic exchange? These are some of the questions that this show attempts to answer. We are currently accepting artwork (video, jpg, gifs, 3d models or HTML content) that will feature in a unique gallery-based exhibition. The exhibition is composed of two parts – a gallery-sited virtual show, and the online production and distribution of materially-realised limited-edition goods."



http://runcomputerrun.com/?page_id=13

Held on May 25 until July 13th, Dublin.

Our relationship to the internet

I have recently started to question some aspects of HCI research. Why is information technology the only material we consider in our research and always seen as the end? What are we missing out? Do every aspect of life need to be a communication technology solution? Are we becoming experts with a very questionable view on society? Or. Maybe I have misunderstood somehting? Maybe I'm wrong?

I think this is an ogoing thing... we are starting to ask ourselves... now that we have basically proved that we can design anything in anyt kind of situation, giving raise to all kinds of experiences.

Below is a link to a story about a guy who lived one year without internet. Very interesting example that says something about how connected we are to eachother through internet. We identify ourselves through our connnections.  I think this is a beautiful example of that hate and love relationship to information technology, that is visualizing and manifesting our relationship to the world and to our friends and colleagues. Still, somehow we consider ourselves to have a relationship to internet too?Or at least some do:

"I was wrong.

One year ago I left the internet. I thought it was making me unproductive. I thought it lacked meaning. I thought it was "corrupting my soul." It's a been a year now since I "surfed the web" or "checked my email" or "liked" anything with a figurative rather than literal thumbs up. I've managed to stay disconnected, just like I planned. I'm internet free. And now I'm supposed to tell you how it solved all my problems. I'm supposed to be enlightened. I'm supposed to be more "real," now. More perfect."....

Read the full story here:

"I’m still here: back online after a year without the internet

 

 

Slow design and slow technology

What is slow design?

http://www.mashpedia.com/Sustainable_design

"Slow design outcomes encourage a reduction in economic, industrial and urban metabolisms, and hence consumption, by: serving basic human needs; designing for space to think, react, dream, and muse; designing for people first, commercialization second; balancing the local with the global and the social with the environmental; demystifying and democratizing design by re-awakening individual’s own design potential; and catalyzing social transformation towards a less materialistic way of living (Fuad-Luke p. 19)"

Sandberg (2011) describes the theory of slow theory and how for example the compass table and other objects created by Dunne and Raby represent slow design "Placebo objects" in her Decelerated design, Master of Arts thesis at University of Iowa. 

Slow design is related to emotionally durable design. I'm looking forward to Chapmans new book :  Chapman argues that the process of consumption is, and has always been, motivated by complex emotional drivers. This is about far more than just the mindless purchasing of new things. Instead it is a journey towards the ideal or desired self, that through cyclical loops of desire and disappointment, which becomes serial destruction.

Related to this is also:

slow technology. (Hallnäs and Redström, 2001)

slow consumption.
slow interaction. 

Some references:

Chapman, Jonathan. "Design for (Emotional) Durability."

Design Issues

25, no. 4 (2009): 29-35.

Chapman, J., Meaningful Stuff: Design, Ecology & the Human Condition, Routledge, London (forthcoming, 2014)

Fuad-Luke, Alastair. "Slow Theory: A Paradigm for Living Sustainably?" Slowdesign.org.

Accessed May 18, 2011. http://www.slowdesign.org/slowtheory.html.

Strauss, Carolyn, and Alastair Fuad-Luke. "The Slow Design Principles." Slowlab.net. 2008.

http://www.slowlab.net/CtC_SlowDesignPrinciples.pdf.

Papenek, V. Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change. New York: Pantheon Press

Lars Hallnäs and Johan Redström. 2001. Slow Technology – Designing for Reflection. Personal Ubiquitous Comput. 5, 3 (January 2001), 201-212.

Sandberg, Abigail Jane. Decelerated design. Diss. The University of Iowa, 2011.

Crafting the future

Some snapshots from the conference:

Otto Von Busch talk: Inspirational with lots of visions and political perspectives "Every grain of soil contains imperialism".  Connecting craft and design, sketching and production. Today this is separated but we need to be seen as two levels.

Otto gave perspectives of sloyd and DIY movements. Today everyone can contribute and produce things (crowdsourcing, 3d printers etc), but how do we create a system where people are actually paid for their contribution? How can we connect practices?And how can the craft practice contribute to and manifest social self-reflection? Also we need to connect practices. I totally agree.

Otto described Friedrich Frödel: " We best understand what we can produce". In this we also need to consider values and power. Producing things "because we can" is not sustainable. What do we ground our design in, how does it affect society and nature?

 

A child playing in a playground made by willow craft (pil in swedish) at Vasaparken in Gothenburg (Arranged by Helena Hansson, HDK). Why are all playgrounds currently being built in plastics? Where is the sand, the leaves, and the threes? What relation to nature do we give our children by removing natural materials from their daily play? Are plastics really more safe? Maybe from physical injury? But this is based on our current understanding, from what we see, what we know, and what we build. 

Maybe we need to reflect more on what we build and why? Maybe we can learn something from craftsmen? Something about social innovation and sustainable perspectives of materials?

Visualization of design-oriented research.

Interesting perspectives of design research!
Visualizing research in design.

Written for Interactions magazine by Liz Sanders. Edited by Hugh Dubberly

Are you Crafting the Future this week?

Designresearch conference in Gothenburg April 17- 19, 2013.

"The theme of the conference is designer´s practice knowledge. How can the specific knowledge of designers be brought forward, articulated, made visible and be understood and used in contexts like innovation, business development and social change?"

http://www.craftingthefuture.se/

I will present the paper:  OPENbike: The design craft of future bike sharing

The paper discusses designerly knowledge in relation to service design. It takes a startingpoint in the designers professional practice and their reflection on doing service design, presenting the designers methods and thoughts on a service design case.

See you there!

 
 

Research Writing Seminar Series

Are you a design-oriented researcher in Gothenburg, Sweden?

 

Then, you are invited! Let's strengthen the Gothenburg design-oriented research community! By meeting once a month we can provide high level feedback on each others research papers. This will support us to generate research knowledge that is valuable across different design-related fields.

Researchers and Ph.D. students in design-oriented research are invited to the seminarie series. Each seminar should consist of a mix of people from HDK, GU, Chalmers and Borås. At each seminar we will discuss 2-3 papers in progress. 

First session is held at kuggen 3rd Floor, Lindholmen, Tuesday May 7th. There are already researchers from HDK, GU and Chalmers attending.

Email me, and I will provide more information:

sara  [atsign]  lotsdesign  [punctation]   se

Most Welcome!

- Sara

DIRECTIONS:

Rosenlund (close to Järntorget) has free boat service to Lindholmen, and there are different buses.
Kuggen is the only round and sparkling red building. You can't miss it :-)

http://www.lindholmen.se/en/dynamic-area/room-grow-lindholmen/kuggen-lindholmsplatsen

The new materialism

Our relation to things with a sustanable perspective. Only acquire something new if you learn a new skill. Need to build strong relations - to reach a more sustainable society.

http://www.thenewmaterialism.org/newmaterialismmanifesto

Reflection in action

Is a good design process a reflective practice? Reflection in action is not only what design practioners and others do in a design process (Schön, The Reflective Practitioner). Csikszentmihalyi and Halton (1981) describe "the self in the context of cultivation", a process of interpretation and self-control motivated by goals. This is a "self-corrective process". Thus, a similar approach to reflection-in-action is already happening in everyday activities (ibid). Thus, this not necessarily unique for a work situation, only applied in a different context and more articulated? ...

Some work practices are very dependent on practice-based knowledge, such as in healtcare. Staff may face very different situations. Here reflection, as well as critical thinking, may support people to handle these and also become more skilfull in what they do (Price, 2003) .

I find it very interesting to understand what it is that we are refelcting on in a design process and why.... Designers are trained to "questions the question" but how is it for other professionals and others that are engaged in design processes? How can we make the most of different skills and experiences in a reflective design process?


To be continued...

Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Halton, E. (1981). The meaning of things: Domestic symbols and the self. Cambridge University Press.

Price, A (2003). "Encouraging reflection and critical thinking in practice". Nursing Standard 18 (47). 

Schön, D. A. (1984). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action (Vol. 5126). Basic Books.

Designing interactions

The desktop metaphor is a way of interacting that once upon a time was transferred from how publishers were working with documents.  A tangible practice informing a digital practice, not intented only for publishers. This and other things is presented in Designing interactions (either as video or text):

http://www.designinginteractions.com/download

I believe that there will be much more that we can sucessfully transfer from practices. There are digital properties that we are missing in the physical world.... and vice versa.

I have previously been working with  how to enable digtial properties for more physical paper-based practices. A few years ago we studied the Gothenburg film festival, and investigated how to keep their paper-based practice  - yet giving it some digital properties.  This was then investigated with the Pin&Play technology, that today has been taken much further by Nocholas Villar among others.

Taking part of research

After some studies and a workshop with people that have disability in their hands and arms, and designers, I hope that to find more ways of engaging both users and designers in reserach.

This is a nice initiative to take inspiration from:

http://www.hso.se/intressepolitik/forskning/Projektet-Fran-forskningsobjekt-till-medaktor1/