design fiction as a service prototyping approach - gert pasman

DESIGN FICTION AS A SERVICE PROTOTYPING APPROACH GERT PASMAN // FACULTY OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN ENGINEERING // DELFT UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

BACKGROUND

•  Industrial design engineering, strong focus on design methods

•  Increasing number of service design projects

•  Interaction design educator, focus on video as a design and prototyping

tool

•  Video for Designers elective

Gert Pasman // ServDes.2016 // Copenhagen 2016

MOTIVATION

•  Many service design tools used in the early phase of the design process are experienced as very high-level, abstract and technical

•  Transition from analysis to synthesis difficult for many students

•  Video more and more applied in design projects, increased level of resources and skills

•  However, use of video mostly restricted to final phase as a presentation tool


GOAL: HOW TO…

4

•  … apply video in a service design process?

•  … not at the end, but more in the beginning?

•  … as an analytical and generative tool?

•  … to explore and design?

•  … in a more holistic and engaging way?


DESIGN FICTION

•  An approach to design that speculates about the impact of new ideas

through storytelling and prototyping (story + object)

•  “Space between science of fact and the science of fiction“ (Bleecker,

2009)

•  “Envisioning alternative presents in order to understand and evaluate

the world we are living in” (Auger, 2010)


CORPORATE DESIGN FICTIONS

•  Blue-sky videos of an idealized and utopian world

•  High production value, created by professional video production teams

•  People are mostly props for technology

•  Glossy and seamless, but also somewhat emotionless and plotless


Microso=, 2011

•  Realistic, sometimes distopian world

•  Lower production value, created by design research teams

•  More grounded in the normalism of everyday life (future mundane)

•  More emphasis on the humane aspects of new technology

RESEARCH DESIGN FICTIONS


Thingtank, Superflux, 2015

POSSIBLE CONTRIBUTION TO A SERVICE DESIGN PROCESS

•  Speculative character provides more freedom to explore and remove real world constraints

•  Integration into everyday life gives more emphasis to the possible impact of new services, both positive and negative

•  Focus on ‘things as actors’ supports the design of Internet of Things-type of services

•  Application of different cinematic techniques, such as establishing shots and close-ups, gives emphasis to different levels of the service


INITIAL EXPLORATIONS

•  Assignment with the Video for Designers elective

•  Design fiction that shows the possible impact of an emerging technology

•  Team of four design students, four days full-time

•  Pre-production: scenario, storyboard + shotlist, interface designs

•  Post-production: Editing in Premiere, visual effects in After Effects


RESULTS AND LESSONS LEARNED

•  Relatively easy to construct a rich storyline with several interactions and/or service moments

•  Easy integration of interfaces using visual effects

•  Difficult to speculate and provoke, especially regarding possible negative aspects

•  Difficult to go beyond screen-based interactions


FUTURE PLANS

•  Formalize the design fiction approach for service design

•  Develop a framework for analysis and reflection

•  Probe where to best apply it in the process

•  Study its feasibility in an actual service design process


QUESTIONS? SUGGESTIONS? SPECULATIONS?
