Expanding the design object

Frederick van Amstel http://fredvanamstel.com

Architecture and Design SchoolDigital Design

PUCPR

Systematic design thinking

•Define requirements before starting

•Designing separate modules or components

• Creating systems that connect all parts

• Avoid mistakes and failures

•Decisions based on quantities

•Designing with explicit constraints

Systematic design-a-house software concept

Intuitive design thinking

• The project stems from a moment of inspiration

• The concept is visualized through sketches, which transform into alternatives and models

• The project is refined until it reaches a high degree of internal coherence

• The project is not implemented by its creators and must be defended or sold

Intuitive eyebrow designs made among students

Expansive design thinking

• The project stems from developing empathy by a particular type of person

•Work is collaborative and involves many disciplines

•Design models are simple and accessible by all

• Emphasizes an holistic vision (social, psychological, technical, financial)

Expansive design for a house gets to a fundamental question (Why having so much with no time to enjoy?)

Again, what is the object of design?

What do we design when we design?

Expansion of the house as a design object

Object: construction materials (brick house)

Object: complex entity (modern house)

Objeto: emergent performance (dwelling experience)

Expansion of the eyebrow as a design object

Object: construction materials (hair removal)

Object: complex entity (eyebrow design)

Object: emergent performance (aesthetic treatment)

Expansion of the website as a design object

Object: construction materials (HTML + Javascript)

Object: complex entity (webdesign)

Object: emergent performance (user experience)

What is an object in activity theory?

•It has both a concrete and an abstract existence

•It is transformed into a product or result

•It raises various motives, even the conflicting ones

•If removed from an activity, the activity looks nonsense

Objects = Instruments

Most common mistake done with activity theory

Cooking activity

Eating activity

Served food

Eatenfood

Self-feeding activity

Food

The same material thing can become different objects

The same object can raise many motives

Activity theory is complex since it is a theory of

organization transformation.

Change explanation:Activity changes when the

object expands.Yrjö Engeström

Expansive cycle

A new need starts to bother people, but they

do not understand it

People face strong conflict of motives around the object

Creation of a new motive and instruments that materialize it

Applying instruments and

dealing with resistance to

change

Consolidation of a new object and activity

Engeström, 1987

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Design problems

•Design problems try to make the unspeakable motives clearer to people

•What is a problem for someone is not a problem for another person

•Design problems do not have a right or wrong solution because they exist to motivate people for doing something about the need state

• It is difficult to tell when a need is fulfilled because the need is never fully understood

Design solutions

• A proposal to change activity through instruments that better deal with the current needs

• Instruments that materialize the new motives

• It is never final or ultimate. There is always something left to improve

•New instruments may face resistance to change and recede back to strong conflicts of motives, preventing the consolidation of a new object

Tactics to expand design objects

• Investigate the motives behind the object

• Create a provocative solution

• Import an instrument from another activity

• Promote the confrontation of interests

• Share the object among multiple activities

•Make a contradiction visible

Investigation of motives behind having eyebrows in society

A provocative solution to expand the object of eyebrow design (what if eyebrows were like moustaches?)

Imported instrument from another activity (moustache)

Eyebrows as a shared object among two activities(eyebrow design and eyebrow wearing)

Confronting the question of being someone (who are you?) with the possession of a house

The contradiction of working hard to accumulate properties and having no time to enjoy them

Instruments I often use to expand design objects:

co-creation materials

Post-it

•One idea per post-it

•Good to generate ideas in silence and discuss later

•Ideas can be reorganized later so it does not need to have a pre-determined structure

Lego

•People have experience

•The pieces activate memories of similar thing

•Good to express complicated things that are difficult to speak

•Quick metaphors

Kraft paper

•Turns any space into a cocreation space

•Cover walls and tables to avoid scratches and losing Lego pieces

•Creates an atmosphere of creativity

Small whiteboards

•Write or draw together in a group

•Since it is so easy to erase, it avoids the block of wrong start

•Present the work of small groups to a larger group

Whiteboard on wheels

•Take advantage of stand up posture

•People can come closer and leave with little acknowledgement

•Can create temporary spaces

Recycable trash

•Sustainable material

•Useful to deal with consumption topics

•Metaphors from everyday familiar objects

Play-doh

•Warm up exercise

•Express feelings and emotions

•Rapid prototyping

Smartphone videos

•Quick to produce

•Depict everyday scenarios

•Documenting interactions across time

Hats and masks

•Helps a person (especially the shy) to pretend she is another person

•Masks reduces the laughter when getting into character

General recommendations

• Prefer flexible materials that you can use to materialize different motives

• Prevent a single person to monopolize a material

• Take advantage of last minute ideas and bring all your materials even if you don’t plan on using them

•Use materials to make visible and actionable conflicts of motives and contradictions

Exercise

• Try expanding the house, the website and eyebrows when they become a design object

• Rethink these objects

•Use the co-creation materials as you wish to materialize the new motives

• Try the tactics to expand design objects (slide 22)

Thank you!Frederick van Amstel

http://fredvanamstel.comArchitecture and Design School

Digital Design PUCPR