The True Benefits of Designing Design Methods

Abstract

This paper calls for a new way of understanding and using methods in human-centred design. Design researchers have recently been active in developing new types of methods aimed at greatly improving their empathic understanding of people's holistic experience, and their design imagination. The strong motivation for a new methodology stems from critical reflection on scientific rationalisation of human-centred design, which attempts to pin down the design process and develop abstract user models. Despite this motivation, the design community has shown a tendency to use a conventional, scientific rationalisation when applying a stream of new design methods. In this paper, I analyse misinterpretations of the new design methods, which I call 'empathic design methods', and seek a more constructive way of understanding and describing how they actually work, going beyond 'methodrecipe' convention. By analysing design students' learning diaries, I investigate what learning is going on in method-making processes and demonstrate how those processes help design students to gather contextual knowledge of a design project and to develop their empathic understanding of users.

The GLID method: Moving from design features to underlying values in co-design

“…The aim was to generate ideas for future technologies and practices that would cope with bullying behavior in school. The co-design techniques served as constructivist tools to assist investigations of 'what may be' rather than simply 'what is' (Lee, 2014). The simultaneous act of making and reflection in the co-design activities increased children's awareness about the complexity of bullying behavior and how to establish and maintain a good class atmosphere.…”

“…In addition, Frauenberger and colleagues have argued for more internal rigor and accountability in PD practices, be it not in a positivistic or reductionist sense. In line with its roots in social constructivism and phenomenology, more holistic and interpretative approaches are needed to analyze participants' contributions in PD, aiming for systematic and critical reflection (Frauenberger et al, 2015;Lee, 2014). This is especially true when involving children as design partners.…”

Codesign with people living with cognitive or sensory impairments: a case for method stories and uniqueness

“…We suggest the sharing of so-called 'method stories' (Lee 2014) in the field of codesign with people living with impairments. In her work on cultural sensitivity in (humancentered) design, Lee finds that there is a tendency to overlook the designer's situated actions, and she pleads for an enhanced attention for the making process of methods: a focus on 'what designers actually do and feel when making their methods work' and not on the data, the interviews or observation notes as end result of the followed method (Lee 2012, 1).…”

Technologies for Social Justice

“…While we have a rich history of participatory action research and design in HCI and related fields (e.g. [11]), we believe more nuanced justice-oriented research and methodologies must be developed alongside organisations, groups, volunteers, or workers who are embedded in the design space to be able to meaningfully innovate [39]. To do this, it is important to be in constant communication and collaboration to ensure the context, histories, empowerment, and community that are so necessary to make such technologies useful remain at the center of the innovation.…”