Design-Led
design-led
with
expert mindset
design-led
with
participatory mindset
Expert Mindset
“users” seen as subjects
(reactive informers)
Participatory
Mindset
“users” seen
as partners
(active co-creators)
research-led
with
expert mindset
research-led
with
participatory mindset
Research-Led
Map of Design•RFeigsuerear1c. h M−apRoefsDeeasrigcnhRTeysepaercsh — Underlying Dimensions
Design-Led
Generative
Design Research
Critical Design
Cultural Probes
Design + Emotion
Generative Tools
Expert Mindset
“users” seen as subjects
(reactive informers)
User-Centered Design
Contexual Inquiry
Participatory
Design
Usability Testing
Lead-User Innovation
“Scandinavian”
Methods
Participatory
Mindset
“users” seen
as partners
(active co-creators)
Human Factors + Ergonomics
Applied Ethnography
Research-Led
Dialogic Design Overlayed on Map of Design Research
• Figure 2. Map of Design Research — Research Types
Design-Led
Critical Design
Cultural Probes
Design + Emotion
Generative Tools
November + December 2008
User-Centered Design
Expert Mindset
“users” seen as subjects
(reactive informers)
Participatory
Design
Contexual Inquiry
Usability Testing
Lead-User Innovation
Dialogic Design
“Scandinavian” Methods
Participatory
Mindset
“users” seen
as partners
(active co-creators)
Human Factors + Ergonomics
Applied Ethnography
the map is the user-centered design zone. Thousands of people in this zone work to help make new product and services better meet the needs of “users.” They use research-led approaches with an expert mind-set to collect, analyze, and interpret data in order to develop specifications or principles to guide or inform the design development of product and services. They also apply their tools and methods in the evaluation of concepts and prototypes. The three large areas of activity in the user-centered zone come from the applied social and behavioral sciences and/or from engineering: human factors/ergonomics, applied ethnography, and usability testing. There are also two smaller bubbles within the user-centered territory: contextual inquiry and lead-user innovation. (More information about the map can be found in my 2006 Design Research Quarterly article [ 1].)
The participatory design zone spreads across both the research-led and design-led approaches on the right side of the map. Participatory design is an approach to design that attempts to actively involve the people who are being served through design in the process to help ensure that the designed product/service meets their needs. Its origins are generally traced back to work done with trade unions in several Scandinavian countries in the 1960s and 1970s [ 2]. Participatory design attempts to involve those who will become the “users” throughout the design development process to the extent that this is possible. A key characteristic of the participatory design zone is the use of physical artifacts as thinking tools throughout the process, common among the methods emanating from the research-led Scandinavian tradition.
The design and emotion bubble emerged in 1999 with the first Design and Emotion Conference in Delft, the Netherlands. It represents the coming together of research-led and design-led approaches to design research. Today it is a global phenomenon, with practitioners as well as academics from all over the world contributing to its development. Interested readers can learn more about it at the website of the Design and Emotion Society (www. designandemotion.org).
The critical design bubble (in the top left corner) is design-led, with the designer playing the role of the expert. The emergence of this bubble came about as a reaction against the large user-centered zone, with its overwhelming focus on usability
References:
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