Reflective DesignReflecting on unconscious values embedded in computing and surrounding practices as a core principle of technology design

Builds on Donald Schön’s work on reflective practice

Designed to help professionals be more explicit, accountable, and revisionary in their professional lives

Reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action

Principles• use reflection to identify and change the limitations of design practice• use reflection to understand designers own role• support users in self-reflection• develop technologies that support reinterpretation and alternate readings• dialogic engagement between designers and users

Schön, D. The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. Basic Books, 1983

Phoebe Sengers, Kirsten Boehner, Shay David, and Joseph 'Jofish' Kaye. 2005. Reflective design. In Proc CC '05, ACM, New York, NY, USA, 49-58.

Participatory DesignChanging the systems and practices of system design and development to support democratic values throughout

Recognition of the politics of design practice

A design process that speaks to the needs of multiple stakeholders

Studies tacit knowledge developed and used by technology workers

Knowledge making through constructivist and constructionist practice

Designer as facilitator to empower users to make their own decisions

Clay Spinuzzi. 'The methodology of participatory design'. Technical Communication 52(2). 163-174. (2005).

Muller, M. and Kuhn, S. (eds). Special Issue on Participatory Design, CACM 36:4, June, 1993.

Value-Sensitive DesignMethodology to inform and answer value questions during the design process

Conceptual investigations based on moral philosophy between stakeholders, values and design tradeoffs

Empirical investigations to determine how protagonists act and behave with respect to values

Technical investigations to explore links between particular technical decisions and how they aid or hinder values and practices

Friedman, B., Kahn, P.,. and Borning, A. Value Sensitive Design and Information Systems. In Human-Computer Interaction in Management Information Systems Foundations, P. Zhang & D. Galletta, eds., M.E. Sharpe, Inc.: NY.

Ludic DesignDesigning for pleasure or ‘homo ludens’ - playful creatures

Ludic activities as a ‘mechanism for developing new values and goals, for learning new things and for achieving new understandings’

Explores production of meaning through exploration, curiosity and reflection

Empirical investigations to determine how protagonists act and behave with respect to values

Reflection and engagement through experiencing designed objects

Gaver, W.W., Bowers, J., Boucher, A., Gellerson, H., Pennington, S., Schmidt, A., Steed, A., Villars, N. & Walker, B. The drift table: Designing for ludic engagement. In Extended Abstracts of CHI 2004. ACM Press, 2004, 885-900.

Critical DesignEmbody cultural critique and provocation in designed artifacts

Provoke new ways of looking at the world

Value fictions - the products do not even have to exist

Irony, humor and subtlety

Dunne, A. Hertzian Tales: Electronic Products, Aesthetic Experience & Critical Design. Art Books, 2000.

Critical Design PracticeCritical Design FAQ

What is Critical Design?Critical Design uses speculative design proposals to challenge narrow assumptions, preconceptions about the role products play in everyday life. Its opposite is affirmative design: design that reinforces the status quo.

What is it for?To make us think. But also raising awareness, exposing assumptions, provoking action, sparking debate, even entertaining in an intellectual sort of way, like literature or film.

Why is it happening now?The world today is incredibly complex, our social relations, desires, fantasies, hopes and fears are very different from the beginning of the 20th century.

What role does humour play?Humour is important but often misused. Satire is the goal. Often only parody and pastiche are achieved. They borrow from existing formats signalling too clearly that it is ironic. The viewer should experience dilemma. Is it serious or not? Real or not?

Biggest misconceptions?That it is:negative, anti-everything.only commentary and cannot change anythingjokeynot concerned with aestheticsagainst mass-productionnot realart

But isn’t it art?We expect art to be shocking, extreme. Critical Design is closer to the everyday, that’s where its power to disturb comes from. Too weird, it’s dismissed as art. Too normal, it’s effortlessly assimilated. It suggests the everyday could be different. That things could change.

Isn’t it a bit dark?Yes, but not for the sake of it. Dark, complex emotions are ignored in design, most areas of culture accept people are complex, contradictory, even neurotic, not design, we view people as obedient, predictable users and consumers.

Critical Design Practicedunne + raby: Dunne & Raby use products and services as a medium to stimulate discussion and debate amongst designers, industry and the public about the social, cultural and ethical implications of emerging technologies.

Placebo Project:The Placebo project is an experiment in taking conceptual design beyond the gallery into everyday life. We devised and made eight prototype objects to investigate peoples’ attitudes to and experiences of electromagnetic fields in the home, and placed them with volunteers. Made from MDF and usually one other specialist material, the objects are purposely diagrammatic and vaguely familiar. They are open-ended enough to prompt stories but not so open as to bewilder.

Artist-DesignerAnthony Dunne - The Pillow

Value Fiction - a cultural thought experiment

Imagine a possible product, based on existing technologies and understand why they would not work in our current culture.

Not technically or economically unfeasible but culturally unfeasible

As critique of the uniformity of current hardware, interfaces and functionality

Method: present prospective owner with the prototype and ask for their reactions - to what degree does it fill recognized needs

Interview process - how did they get it? where do they keep it?

Ambiguity and DesignUsing ambiguity to encourage close personal engagement with systems

Ambiguity of Information: in the artifact itself - Bystander

Ambiguity of Context: in the sociocultural discourse used to interpret the artefact - Duchamp

Ambiguity of Relationship: in the evaluative stance of the individual

Ambiguity and DesignUsing ambiguity to encourage close personal engagement with systems

Ambiguity of Information: project our expectations into an interpretation of incomplete information

Ambiguity of Context: integration of incompatible frames of reference

Ambiguity of Relationship: a projection of our subjective attitudes onto new situations

Tactics:

Use imprecise representations: LiveWire

Over interpret information: Home Health

Expose inconsistencies

Cast doubt on sources

Add incongruous features

Block functionality

Introduce disturbing side effects

Critical Design Practicedunne + rabyDesigns for Fragile Personalities in Anxious Times

Critical Design Practicedunne + rabyScience Museum

Critical Design Practicedunne + rabyScience Museum

Critical Design PracticeElio Caccavalea designer who uses hypothetical products and social fiction scenarios to engage people’s imaginations about the emerging technologies and the effects that they might have on life in the future.

Critical Design PracticeMarti Guixe - undesigner

www.guixe.com

Critical Design PracticeNoam Toran: http://www.noamtoran.com/Research based, Toran’s work focuses on the social, psychological and ethical implications of emerging technologies, mass culture, and celluloid media, and attempts to both define and criticize the intersection between science and society, between modernity and culture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDjM25KtahQ

Critical Design PracticeJurgen Bey

According to him, wanting to think or create something new is bizarre, for every thing or solution we can possibly dream of does already exist in the world around us. It is just a question of recognizing it and then of being able to translate it into something people want to use.

Critical Design PracticeJurgen Bey

According to him, wanting to think or create something new is bizarre, for every thing or solution we can possibly dream of does already exist in the world around us. It is just a question of recognizing it and then of being able to translate it into something people want to use.

Critical Design PracticeJurgen Bey

According to him, wanting to think or create something new is bizarre, for every thing or solution we can possibly dream of does already exist in the world around us. It is just a question of recognizing it and then of being able to translate it into something people want to use.

Universal Principles of DesignDevelopment Cycle:requirements, design, development, and testing

1) Requirements - through market research, customer feedback, focus groups, usability testing. Informally through direct knowledge or experience.

2) Design - translating design requirements into a set of specifications. Research existing/analogous solutions, brainstorm with diverse participants, prototype, iterate/test/tune.

3) Development - translate design specifications into a product. Quality control by a) reducing variability in materials, creation of parts and assembly of parts and b) verifying that specifications are maintained throughout the development process.

4) Testing - ensure the product meets design requirements and specifications and satisfies target audience. Controlled interaction with real end users.

Universal Principles of Design: 100 ways to enhance usability, influence perception, increase appeal, make better design decisions, and teach through designWilliam Lidwell, Kritina Holden, Jill Butler 2003

Universal Principles of DesignLinear Model - Waterfallpreferred when req+spec are exact and unchanging + iteration is costly

Iterative Model - Spiral - preferred

Universal Principles of DesignIterationProcess of repeating a set of operations until a specific result is achieved

Emergence of ordered complexity through accumulation of knowledge and experience that is applied to a design

1) Design Iteration - expected as progress from low to high fidelitySuccesses and failures are both useful. Establish clear criteria defining the degree to which design requirements must be satisfied for the design to be considered complete.

2) Development Iteration - unexpected reworkCostly and undesirable resulting from inadequate/incorrect design specs or poor planning and management during development.

Plan for 1 and avoid 2 through well-written specs, high-fidelity models/prototypes and shared vision between members of the development team

Glenn Ballard. "Positive and negative iteration in design". In Proceedings of the 8th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction. University of Sussex, Brighton, UK, July.

Universal Principles of DesignSatisficing

Often preferable to settle for a satisfactory solution, rather than pursue an optimal solution - best is the enemy of the good.

1) Complex design problemslarge number of interacting variables + large number of unknownsseek a satisfactory solution that is better than existing alternatives

2) Time limited problemstime frames do not permit adequate analysis or development of optimal solutioncare needed to identify legitimate time limits

3) Problems where beyond satisfactory yields diminishing returnsrequires accurate knowledge of design requirements and value perceptions of the user. e.g Swatch watch.

Universal Principles of Design

Universal Principles of DesignFunctionalityMeeting the most basic design requirements: Design perceived as little or no valuee.g. VCR records, plays and rewinds

ReliabilityEstablishing stable and consistent performance: Design perceived as low valuee.g. VCR consistently records and plays back at acceptable quality

UsabilityHow easy and forgiving a design is to use: Design perceived as moderate valuee.g. VCR can be easily programed for later recording

ProficiencyEmpowering people to do things better than they could previously: Design perceived to be of high valuee.g. VCR can choose programs to record

CreativityPeople can interact with the design in innovative ways: Design perceived to be of highest value and inspires strong loyalty

Inclusive Design

Ensures that goods, services and environments are accessible to more people

Leads to more social equality and makes business sense

Challenge - understanding and quantifying the numbers of people adversely affected by decisions made during the specification and design process

Who does design exclusion affect?

Inclusive Design

Ensures that goods, services and environments are accessible to more people

Leads to more social equality and makes business sense

Challenge - understanding and quantifying the numbers of people adversely affected by decisions made during the specification and design process

Who does design exclusion affect?

Elderly, disabled, economically vulnerable, those affected by changing technologies and work practices

Inclusive Design

Changing World:

202050% of UK population will be over 5020% of US and 25% of Japan will be over 65

Changes?

Inclusive Design

Changing World:

202050% of UK population will be over 5020% of US and 25% of Japan will be over 65

Changes?Eyesight, hearing, dexterity, mobility, memory

Integration of disabled people into everyday life - access

Past - disability and ageing considered to have no economic significance beyond welfare and healthcare

Inclusive Design

Examples:The London Taxi - Pentagram DesignWheelchair friendly, grab bars and othersafety features

Good Grips - Smart DesignPhysical design is dead - Design of ExperiencesFitness for purpose

Inclusive Design

Corporate Research:Microsoft Accessibility Survey: 15,000 peoplehttp://www.microsoft.com/enable/research/

Philips Web Survey: 1,501 peopleHealthcare, wellbeing and attitudestowards technologyhttp://snipurl.com/232qz

Business Networks:International Association for Universal Design120 Japanese companies, consumer organizations

http://www.iaud.net/en/

Inclusive Design

Three priorities:

Flexibility - adaptable for different users and uses, and responsive to age-related changes

Independence - through choice and control

Social Interaction - with family, friends, neighborhoods and through work opportunities and democratic participation as active citizens

Future of Inclusive Design

Disability Rights through legislation

Inclusive response - more than accessibility

Disabled by poor design - Products, services and information can be inaccessible to large numbers of people

Dynamic, social model based on equal opportunities and participation - fit the environment to the person.

References for Inclusive Design

Inclusive Design - Roger Coleman:http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/en/About-Design/Design-Techniques/Inclusive-design/

Design for All Education and Traininghttp://www.education.edean.org/

Living Longer - the new context for design, Design CouncilPublic Access Terminals - John GillMethods set: Empathic - Cherie Lebbon

The Methods Lab: User Research for Design, ed Hugh Aldersey-Williams, John Bound and Roger Coleman