First session¶
When? 17th October 2023 (individual session online)
Who? Roger Guilemany
What? Roles of Prototyping in 1PP Research through design
Reflection¶
It is interesting to think about the new role of designers as a change of positioning within the relationship it has with the community it wants to serve, to think about the First Person Perspective in design.
Until now I had always learned that designers, architects, engineers… where this omnipotent figure that could solve a problem by producing products or services for the user. These concepts hold many assumptions that don’t make any sense anymore; as designers we know what users need, everyone interacts with a new product or service the same way, the concept of a “good design” as an fully useful product for everyone everywhere and many more worth mentioning.
Doing the thought process of placing the role of the designer inside the community, as a stakeholder or element in a system that works, has initially left me with the feeling that the First Person Perspective limits us as designers by saying we can only impact the systems we are part of.
While this is the first reaction I had, I’ve realized that by forming part of the system we can have much more efficient well-oriented solutions to our designs. You no longer are imposing ideas; you are just one more piece of the puzzle, needed to be completed but useless on its own.
I’m looking forward to see how this theory can be applied and how can I break with my already learned conception of the role of the designer.
As for the roles of prototyping. I have little experience with prototyping and doing hands-on design, I’ve only done a couple of models during my bachelor many years ago. I hadn’t though about what role does prototyping has in a design process, I assumed it was the last part of a project, once you have the final design and you want to present it.
I see know the potential of prototyping and the fact that it doesn’t have to be perfect, only useful for the project. It is very interesting to have this possibility, the one I’m most interested about is the prototyping as a as a vehicle for inquiry. I believe people are more communicative and expressive when having their hands full, you can extract a lot of unrelated information form an specific practical activity with a group of people.
Deliverables¶
Extended workspace diagram
This diagram shows the elements inside my personal extended workspace classifed in two different ways: classifed by reaching levels and classifed by categories.
• Short reach: elements that i have contact with in my everyday life.
• Middle-length reach: elements that i need to specifcally look for.
• Long reach: elements that aren֗ t known to me even though they are available.
