The second day of the conference had a much better sense of theme and structure than the first. The morning focus was on the use of technology in design research and the afternoon talks covered design research activities in Asia and developing countries. This post will cover the technology topics of the day.
Kim Erwin: Discussed how online tools were allowing design research to change. Traditional methods either put the user and researcher in the same time and place - interview/observation - or they separated the researcher from the user by time and place - surveys/logs collected from the user and analyzed via automation or in the researcher's office. Online tools now provide platforms where the user can do self-reporting at different times but the researcher comes to the same place where the user reports -- blogs, forums, narrative building sites. Online tools and platforms support expanded access, mobility, intimacy and collaboration. Kim presented three tools that her student team has been working with: Revelation, QualVu and Civicom.
Revelation allows the researcher to set up projects containing a variety of assignments that the user performs online at different times such as questionnaires, diaries, discussion forums, etc. The researcher can review user inputs and tag them for querying and comparison. QualVu is a tool that lets users create video diaries in their home or workspace. The researcher can access these videos and create accompanying text commentary that is stored with the video by QualVu. The researcher can also pull video clips together to create online reports and presentations. Civicom is a voice and text platform that lets researchers and users phone or text it in. Communication is pull or push, researchers can call users on a regular basis for planned information-gathering and users can text feedback whenever motivated.
Martha Cotten: When stakeholders are in corporate silos such as production, finance, public policy, risk management, etc. how do you get collaboration that is not accidental? Two tools that are good for bringing the team together: GuapoVideo and "Digital Binder". GuapoVideo is another video management tool that lets researchers upload video and then clip, tag, share and chat about it with other members of the research team. GuapoVideo keeps a running log of team inputs that everyone can see.
The "Digital Binder" is a new tool under development at gravitytank. Martha showed us a prototype. The goal is to produce an online version of a research project binder so that all artifacts (text, drawings, video, photos, voice, etc.) can be easily searched, sorted and shared by any team member or stakeholder.
Usman Haque: In an example of technology happening first and then seeking a need it can fill, Usman introduced us to his creation, Pachube . Pachube is a platform for aggregating sensor data. Anything that has a sensor or electronic monitoring device such as electricity meters, heating and cooling systems, etc. can be hooked into Pachube for public or private reporting or to manage buildings or systems to respond automatically to change. As people figure out what they can track and compare, they figure out ways to make use of the technology.
There is a lot of potential for using this information to influence voluntary desirable social behavior around energy consumption. In a example experiment, sensors were wired to plants and lamps in a network of homes. Excess use of your lamp could cause the network to kill someone else's plant. Since members of the network know which locations are the excess consumers, all members regulated their behavior to avoid killing plants. When the network included a lamp and plant at a trade show however, the anonymous show attendees kept the lamp switched on to the selfish, plant-killing setting.
Rob Tannen: This was an interesting discussion of things a designer has to consider about physical behavior when creating products. Because of the broad range of problems, this was not a how-to or what-to do kind of talk but just a series of example to provoke thinking and awareness. Rob suggested we think about a two-dimensional mapping as a starting point: scale & skill. Scale refers to the physical dimension (distance, weight) of the product and skill pertains the training required for use. Example, a cutting tool for gardening vs. a cutting tool for a surgeon.
There is a lack of vocabulary for qualitative ergonomic information so Rob proposed four categories where users can have difficulty or have unintended results: posture (standing or seated), reach (finger/hand, hand/arm, leg), clearance (amount of space to leave free above and around a thing; e.g, keys too close on a keyboard), and strength (minimum and maximum amount of force).
Charting physical space in buildings is important too. Where are people located, what are the flowlines along which they move? What are their lines of sight and the visual clues they look for? (see for inspiration, or entertainment, Synchronous Objects)
For more insights, Rob has a 48 minute presentation on ergonomics as well as additional articles at the Bressler Group and his blog on Fast Company.
Heather Reavey: This was a more general discussion of how designers can connect with their clients to get to breakthrough ideas. I will come back to those thoughts later, in this post, I want to stick with the technology theme. One thing that Heather called out was the problem with too-realistic prototypes. If it's too real, people immediately begin to focus on what's wrong, not what's possible or good. As cautionary tales, she reminded us of zombies, alien invaders, and the failure of a certain digitally animated film. She suggested we investigate Masahiro Mori's Uncanny Valley hypothesis.
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