Question: “Participatory design diminishes the role of the designer” OR "Participatory design enhances the role of the designer."
Reply:
Participatory design enhances the role of the designer. Why would you not want developed ideas from passionate people? It's like a free brainstorming session, but it's based on real life desires and preferences from people who have spent a lot of time thinking about the pros and cons of a hobby/passion/object that they have or want. Innovation is enhanced by collaboration and design should be about understanding what people want and then infusing it with your education and knowledge and creating the best possible outcome/project/product.
In his TED talk, Chris Anderson articulated well the idea that we are a "social species" and we don't generally work in isolation and the best ideas usually spring from collaboration.
Charles Leadbeater discussed the mountain bike in his talk and how it came from people who were passionate about biking but frustrated with their existing options, so they developed a great product that is still being used thirty years later. Open sourcing and participatory design can enhance the role of the designer because it makes their work more approachable to a larger population who feel that their needs are being met. One of the most beautiful aspects of being a designer is creating a product that could have staying power and an impact that will reach the masses. Participatory design doesn't diminish the importance of the designer's role in creating a product/solution/system nor does it maintain that a designer has to listen too all viewpoints of the participants. It is another tool that can help the designer realize a product/solution/system with greater impact.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Saturday, September 18, 2010
CCA DR Blog Post #2
Question: “What kind of team member are you? What types of contributions can you make to a design research team?”
Reply:
There are so many different situations in which one ends up on a team and context generally tends to serve as main parameter for shaping how I behave. For example, I am currently on a women's soccer team and in this context I tend to take more of a leadership position on the field. I play a central defender and because I can see most of what's happening on the field from my vantage point, I call out commands, warnings, congratulations, etc. I have always behaved like a leader on sports teams as far back as I can remember.
However, when I'm working on a team say in a school context, I tend to hang back a bit more and let others do the talking. If there is someone who has a particularly strong personality, I don't want to clash with them so I tend to let them take more of a leadership role. While sometimes I feel that I could step up , I don't see others taking the lead as a negative. Again and again we are warned that democracy in a team setting can sometimes be the death of the group, but being able to facilitate and listen and be aware of social nuances and people's abilities without being confrontational or stubborn is something that I believe is a strength. Because my personality is like this, I tend to work well with a wide variety of people. I also like to find common ground to connect with people and that could be useful in interviewing strangers. Additionally, I don't hesitate to give both positive and critical feedback to fellow members of a team. I also like to champion the ideas of others if I believe in them and think they have the potential for success. I feel that I have a versatile personality that enables me to take on leadership roles when I must but am also able to concede that position to someone else if it enables the group dynamic to function more smoothly. These are the kinds of contributions I believe I could make to a design research team.
Reply:
There are so many different situations in which one ends up on a team and context generally tends to serve as main parameter for shaping how I behave. For example, I am currently on a women's soccer team and in this context I tend to take more of a leadership position on the field. I play a central defender and because I can see most of what's happening on the field from my vantage point, I call out commands, warnings, congratulations, etc. I have always behaved like a leader on sports teams as far back as I can remember.
However, when I'm working on a team say in a school context, I tend to hang back a bit more and let others do the talking. If there is someone who has a particularly strong personality, I don't want to clash with them so I tend to let them take more of a leadership role. While sometimes I feel that I could step up , I don't see others taking the lead as a negative. Again and again we are warned that democracy in a team setting can sometimes be the death of the group, but being able to facilitate and listen and be aware of social nuances and people's abilities without being confrontational or stubborn is something that I believe is a strength. Because my personality is like this, I tend to work well with a wide variety of people. I also like to find common ground to connect with people and that could be useful in interviewing strangers. Additionally, I don't hesitate to give both positive and critical feedback to fellow members of a team. I also like to champion the ideas of others if I believe in them and think they have the potential for success. I feel that I have a versatile personality that enables me to take on leadership roles when I must but am also able to concede that position to someone else if it enables the group dynamic to function more smoothly. These are the kinds of contributions I believe I could make to a design research team.
Monday, September 13, 2010
CCA DR Blog Post #1
Question: "What, if any, experience do you have with design research and what do you hope to learn from this course?"
Reply:
Since graduating school in 2008, I've had two different design-related jobs. The first was for a luxury hardware company that catered to high-end architectural projects and the only real research that I did was occasionally perusing the websites of other hardware companies to compare their products and finishes with our products and finishes. However, this task was only rarely asked of me.
My second design-related job was as an assistant designer at a bedding company/textile studio. This job involved some market research. I often had to make trips to fabric stores in New York to see what kinds of fabrics and patterns they were selling so we could use them in our own projects or create variations. I also made trips to stores like Crate and Barrel, ABC Carpet & Home, and Macy's in order to see what kinds of products these stores that were considered "higher-end" carried. JCPenney was a large client of our studio so I also had to make a lot of trips to the only JCPenney in Manhattan which was located in Manhattan Mall (Which, can I just add, is the worst mall in America. Why is there even a mall in Manhattan?? And why is it steps away from Macy's and Penn Station which combined creates incredibly dense human traffic.).
The way that my studio worked is that we would create bedding designs and sell them to clients like JCPenney. Selling one bedding design to a company like that could in fact make a lot of money for a studio like ours. JCPenney (JCP for future reference) had both in-house designers and they out-sourced to smaller studios. They also followed a strict branding identity so all designs had to very closely resemble the style of the brand for JCP to consider purchasing the design. They outsourced because they felt that some smaller studios were more capable of creating designs that stayed true to a particular brand identity than their own team.
The more senior designers often made trips to China and India. The trips to China usually involved going to the factories we used and attending fairs to peruse and purchase the products that these factories were producing. There were also a lot of trips made to Cracker Barrel, you know, the old country store and restaurant, to see the products we produced for their stores on the shelves. Mostly to make sure that the factory had done a decent decent job in the production process, we would purchase a sample or two of the final product. We were also always encouraged to visit stores and websites that created similar products to keep up with what was current in the market.
There were very rarely any interactions with the people who purchased our products. There would sometimes be calls to our company from irritated clients, but they were mostly directed to the sales side so I'm not really sure how those situations were handled. One of the top things I really hope to learn from this course is how to better understand the needs of the client. For example, I always wondered who decided what the appropriate bedding style was for a chain store that sold mostly to the Midwest...did someone visit the homes of Midwesterners and create a style based on what they saw or was someone up top just making stuff up? I also want to be able to ask more apropos questions. In our first assignment I realized that I have a really hard time staying on task. It's so easy to stray! But maybe sometimes that leads to unexpected realizations? That's what I want to find out.
Reply:
Since graduating school in 2008, I've had two different design-related jobs. The first was for a luxury hardware company that catered to high-end architectural projects and the only real research that I did was occasionally perusing the websites of other hardware companies to compare their products and finishes with our products and finishes. However, this task was only rarely asked of me.
My second design-related job was as an assistant designer at a bedding company/textile studio. This job involved some market research. I often had to make trips to fabric stores in New York to see what kinds of fabrics and patterns they were selling so we could use them in our own projects or create variations. I also made trips to stores like Crate and Barrel, ABC Carpet & Home, and Macy's in order to see what kinds of products these stores that were considered "higher-end" carried. JCPenney was a large client of our studio so I also had to make a lot of trips to the only JCPenney in Manhattan which was located in Manhattan Mall (Which, can I just add, is the worst mall in America. Why is there even a mall in Manhattan?? And why is it steps away from Macy's and Penn Station which combined creates incredibly dense human traffic.).
The way that my studio worked is that we would create bedding designs and sell them to clients like JCPenney. Selling one bedding design to a company like that could in fact make a lot of money for a studio like ours. JCPenney (JCP for future reference) had both in-house designers and they out-sourced to smaller studios. They also followed a strict branding identity so all designs had to very closely resemble the style of the brand for JCP to consider purchasing the design. They outsourced because they felt that some smaller studios were more capable of creating designs that stayed true to a particular brand identity than their own team.
The more senior designers often made trips to China and India. The trips to China usually involved going to the factories we used and attending fairs to peruse and purchase the products that these factories were producing. There were also a lot of trips made to Cracker Barrel, you know, the old country store and restaurant, to see the products we produced for their stores on the shelves. Mostly to make sure that the factory had done a decent decent job in the production process, we would purchase a sample or two of the final product. We were also always encouraged to visit stores and websites that created similar products to keep up with what was current in the market.
There were very rarely any interactions with the people who purchased our products. There would sometimes be calls to our company from irritated clients, but they were mostly directed to the sales side so I'm not really sure how those situations were handled. One of the top things I really hope to learn from this course is how to better understand the needs of the client. For example, I always wondered who decided what the appropriate bedding style was for a chain store that sold mostly to the Midwest...did someone visit the homes of Midwesterners and create a style based on what they saw or was someone up top just making stuff up? I also want to be able to ask more apropos questions. In our first assignment I realized that I have a really hard time staying on task. It's so easy to stray! But maybe sometimes that leads to unexpected realizations? That's what I want to find out.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
well kids, this is it.
Dear Reader,
I will be brief. It's time to move on.
This will be my last art you can fart post. She's been a good little blog and I'm sorry to see her go but these things happen and we can either stay as we are and remain stagnant, or except inevitable change and move on.
I've chosen the latter.
Check out my new blog when you have a chance,
http://things-are-looking-up.tumblr.com/
Enjoy!
Remember, the world is beautiful and you are beautiful in it.
xoxoKristin.
I will be brief. It's time to move on.
This will be my last art you can fart post. She's been a good little blog and I'm sorry to see her go but these things happen and we can either stay as we are and remain stagnant, or except inevitable change and move on.
I've chosen the latter.
Check out my new blog when you have a chance,
http://things-are-looking-up.tumblr.com/
Enjoy!
Remember, the world is beautiful and you are beautiful in it.
xoxoKristin.
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