DMDN371

Since late 60s onwards we see a shift from hierarchies to network throughout all different contexts and society. In particular the field of design is a good representation of the networked society. As designers design for the networked society but also are part of the networked society. This is applicable to both their field of application and the field of discipline. One of the main characteristics of the creative industries is that it’s an informal network; which is in contrast other established fields such as science.

Download the sheets here

Hereby the briefs of:

- assignment 3

- assignment 4

Also assignment 3 requires uploading to the Rdrive in oder to be printed: here are the guidelines

Hand in 3
- A1 Poster
- hand in on Friday 26th BEFORE 9.00 AM
-> upload on R drive: Folder
hand-in\DMDN&IDDN371\Printing
- Pay $19.80 to Arthur Mahon

- Posters can be collected from Arthur later that day
- Monday morning put your poster on the panels in the hall way
- Week long exhibition
- Friday 3rd of October Tutors will evaluate posters
- then Exhibition closes
- keep your posters

Ethnography is the art and science of describing a group or culture. (Dr. David M. Fetterman of Stanford University)

In particular design ethnography is of crucial importance for design research and design thinking. Imagine stepping into the culture of your users; experience the world through their senses. Understand their routnines, their dreams, opinions and even their fantasies. As a designer you need to be on top of your design, the intended experience and the proposed audience: ethnography is your guide for being successful. It’s a diffiult guide, it might be a bumpy ride but it supports, helps and inspires.

Check the sources for help.

download the sheets here

download paper on design ethnography here

check the REMINI project here

“Because the essence of technology is nothing technological, essential reflection upon technology and decisive confrontation with it must happen in a realm that is, on the one hand, akin to the essence of technology and, on the other, fundamentally different from it. Such realm is art…” Heidegger (1977, p. 35)

First introduced by Johann Heinrich Lambert in 1764 in “Neues Organon” as ‘Science of Appearance’, since then picked up by Kant, Husselr, Heidegger, Hegel, Merleau-Ponty. It’s a descriptive study of understanding the world through senses

(1) A description of the givens of immediate experience.
(2) An attempt to capture experience in process as lived, through descriptive analysis.
(3) A method of knowing that “begins with the things themselves, that tries to find a ‘first opening’ on the world free of our perceptions and interpretations, together with a methodology for reducing the interference of our preconceptions.
(4) A method of learning about another person by listening to their descriptions of what their subjective world is like for them, together with an attempt to understand this in their own terms as fully as possible, free of our preconceptions and interferences.

Husserl

- basics of phenomenology is the intention
- the object is intentional object
- the relationship is the study
- distinction between ‘noetic’ and ‘noematic’

Merleau-Ponty

- there is NO division between the subject and the object
- understanding this relationship through observing phenomena from a first-person perspective
-  intercorporeality: “empty heads turned towards the world”
- our bodies turn to other bodies
- mastery of phenomenology and design is achieved when the action is “purposeful but without purpose”

Heidegger

Makes connection to design and phenomenology by understanding “interplay”, interplay = person and the object in use. He also claims it’s hifting from “being present-at-hand” to “being ready-to hand”.

Sheets of lecture here

suggest to read “introduction to phenomenology” Dermot Moran (2000)

Other links:
Stanford programme on Phenomenology
Fullerton programme on Phenomenology

What is Ludology?

It’s based on the concept “Homo Ludens” = Playing Man and was coined in 1923 by Prof. Johan Huizinga. He investigates the anthropologic research into rules of play where he studies play as social function”. This course focus of ludology is on play as a social function.

Huizinga identifies 7 “chararcteristics” for play:

1. play is a voluntary activity: never a task: play is a social construction, it’s based on manipulation of certain images iow certain imaginations of our real-life. Even though it’s fun: it’s fluid with seriousness. instinct is petitio principii: they do it because they enjoy it.
2. play is not “ordinary” or “real” life: it’s about stepping out into temporary sphere of activity. As such it interludes in daily life: it compliments us.
3. secludedness/limitedness: within limits of time and place. play is distinct from normal life because it has locality and duration that contains its own course and meaning and can be repeated at any time. Repetition is a quality of play. All the play moves within demarcated area: the arena, the level, the stage, the screen, court of justice etc., and all are temporary worlds within ordinary world, dedicated to the performance of an act apart.
4. creates absolute order: play demands order absolute and supreme: the least deviation from it spoils the game. Huizinga says also claims a reason for play is that order is connected to aesthetics: denotations of play comes from aesthetics: tension, poise, balance (equilibrium), variation. it’s “enchanting”, captivating.
5. creates tension: uncertainty, chanciness, striving to end. Player wants something to go, to succeed. This element of tension and solution governs solitary games of skills and application. It tests the player’s prowness: courage, tenacity and his spiritual powers of “fairness”: we must stick to the rules.
6. creates play-community: play community can be permanent even after a game/play. It gives the community a feeling of being apart/together. This sharing refers to “phrataria” eg. clans, supporters etc.
7. creates consciousness about “us”: this is for “us”, not the others. Players step inside magic circle of games. Laws and customs of “ordinary life” don’t exist; eg. great feast of initiation is a temporary suspension of normal social life

In sum Huizinga states that:

Summing up the formal characteristics of play we might call it a free activity standing quite consciously outside “ordinary” life as being “not serious”, but at the same time absorbing the player intensely and utterly. It is an activity connected with no material interest, and no profit can be gained by it. It proceeds within it’s own proper boundaries of time and space according to fixed rules and in an orderly manner. It promotes the formation of social grouping which tend to surround themselves with secrecy and to stress their difference from the common world by disguise or other means.

Huizinga, 1923 p. 13

Find the sheets of lecture 5 here

Interaction involves two participants: the user and the design form. The interaction is aimed at supporting the user to accomplish the goals set by a specific application domain. In this case the domain would refer to a design form (chosen by YOU), the goals set for the user are designed and developed based on theor needs. Each goal is initiated by a task, e.g. to delete a document, this could be the goal for the user. Then the task indicates what the user has to perform in order to reach the goal. For this to be accomplished the user has to perform actions, so called intentions.

Definition of Interaction Design is:

“designing interactive products to
support people in their everyday and
working lives.”
(Preece et al., 2002).

Norman Model

The first model to be discussed is also the most used model for interaction, which is the execution-evaluation cycle developed by Norman (Norman, 1988). In this model the user formulates a plan of action, which is executed by the system. The outcomes of the execution are the outcomes to be evaluated by the user in order to be in a position to react upon them. This cycle is divided into 7 stages:
Establishing a goal
Forming the intention
Specifying the action sequences
Executing the action
Perceiving the system state
Interpreting the system state
Evaluating the system state with respect to the goals and intentions

Each stage is an activity undertaken by a user, however the locus of control changes mid-cycle. The first half of the cycle is a preliminary action of the user, which consists of stages 1, 2 and 3, called the task language. The fourth stage is the changing stage from preliminary user actions to preliminary system actions. Stage 5, 6, and 7 are driven by primarily the system, which is called the core language. If both half cycles correspond to each other the interaction can be called effective.

The model is useful for all the assets related to the user, the model does not focus on the system. Its primary focus is on the user, the necessity of this primary focus is to be questioned as the system is of great influence on both the user and the interaction itself.

Nielsen model:

As indicated earlier the study of interaction defines the language of both the user, which is called the task language and the system, which is called the core language. In this model both input and output are introduced to support the model, these two components also refer to a language, which is called the interface. The interface divides the user from the design, in which the input and output are mechanisms for the interaction between the user and the design. The design presents information, which is to be perceived as the output, which is observed by the user. The reaction of the user on the output creates the new-reaction of the user for the input. The input then is the indication for the system to start its performance.

These relations between the components, articulation-performance-presentation-observation, are under great influence by both the human capacity as well as the design.  Factors of influence which constrain the relations between the components:
The first two steps can be perceived as the interaction/input part of the interaction circle.
Articulation: The user needs to perform tasks to give the input, or rephrased the user has to articulate their needs for performing an input. The quality of articulation depends on the design of the interface supporting the tasks to be performed by the user. Summarised by Nielsen [1993] stated ‘Know your’ user in his book on web-usability.
Performance: After the user has been able to articulate their needs into input, the input has to be performed, in order to be received and processed by the design. Therefore not only the psychology of the user has be addressed there is also a clear need for translating these tasks into comprehensive performances for the design. In a developing working situation this could mean an intensive cooperation between different designers.
The last two steps can be perceived as the evaluative/output steps of the interaction cycle.
Presentation: After the system has processed the input, the output is being presented to the outer world. The results of the input, the output, are being presented, in order to be observed by the user. Observation: Last but not least the output presented has to be evaluated, observed, by the user so the user can begin their own input on the results. For a proper observation the results have to be designed to conform with the standards and expectation of the user within the context of the design they have engaged with.

Also we need to understand that Interaction Design is on ALL user levels.

Sheets of Lecture 4 here

Background on Cybernetics out of PhD Thesis of Aukje Thomassen (2003)

Great paper on the future of Interaction Design

Interesting blog on Interaction Design

Phase 2: How to know what to use and how it’s originated?
Phase Two is divided into two assignments.  The first assignment is a tutor –supported group design research projects for a specific context. Each group will investigate practical, theoretical, empirical, historical and forma design issues and present the outcomes both visually and verbally as well as to consolidate the group’s research process in a working essay.
The second assignment will require each student to visualize a chosen hypothesis.

Using theory is not about creating the best punch; it’s about understanding how all the ingredients make the best design. In this phase the student will learn and LIVE theory through exploration and design adaptation of theories. Theories discussed are used widely in the current design field.  These include Ludology Theory, Interaction Design Theory, Virtual (Network) Theory, Phenomenology, and Theory of Things to name a few.

Each theory lecture will be supported by MOR (Methods of Research), an overview of methods of research that support theory-based design:
How to write abstract and a working paper
Field Research
Semiotic Analysis
Projective Techniques
De-Mystification of Writing
Repertoire Analysis (analysis of design-forms)

In the kick-off lecture of P2 we discussed the construct of the next phase, we saw one example on theory through design. The guestlectures were given by Timothy Greig of the library and Luke Feast on design writing.

You can find:

the sheets of lecture 3 here

the sheets of library lecture here

If you click on the ‘i’, or return to the set itself, then you read the transcript of the talk underneath.

the sheets of design writing lecture here

Also some examples of theory and design within 10 days

The next phase includes each week a new theory and it’s design application: