Abstract
The work reported in this paper investigates the application, within the industrial design education context, of methods of inquiry and design problem-framing derived from social research disciplines. The notion of developing more holistic approaches to human factors in design which incorporate affective and socio-cultural needs has gained some currency in recent years. Developments in this area have resulted in the proposal of a range of tools and methods such as Jordan’s (2000) ‘New Human Factors’ and Watts-Perotti and Sanders’ (2000) ‘Generative User Needs Analysis’. The issues addressed by these tools and methods are clearly not new to design. To a designer, the ability to recognise or discover these types of needs might be described within the gamut of factors that constitute the expert designer’s “designerly way of knowing” (Cross 1982) and designs created with such expertise would be expected to resonate with peoples’ experience. The ‘New Human Factors’ tools and methods seek to support design activity by providing a more organised, systematic and (perhaps) objective way of capturing peoples’ experiential ‘aspirational’ needs.
Citation
Talbot, J., and Ward, S. (2004) Designing for Experiential and 'Aspirational' Needs: Observations of Student Design Activity., in Redmond, J., Durling, D. and de Bono, A (eds.), Futureground - DRS International Conference 2004, 17-21 November, Melbourne, Australia. https://dl.designresearchsociety.org/drs-conference-papers/drs2004/researchpapers/155
Designing for Experiential and 'Aspirational' Needs: Observations of Student Design Activity.
The work reported in this paper investigates the application, within the industrial design education context, of methods of inquiry and design problem-framing derived from social research disciplines. The notion of developing more holistic approaches to human factors in design which incorporate affective and socio-cultural needs has gained some currency in recent years. Developments in this area have resulted in the proposal of a range of tools and methods such as Jordan’s (2000) ‘New Human Factors’ and Watts-Perotti and Sanders’ (2000) ‘Generative User Needs Analysis’. The issues addressed by these tools and methods are clearly not new to design. To a designer, the ability to recognise or discover these types of needs might be described within the gamut of factors that constitute the expert designer’s “designerly way of knowing” (Cross 1982) and designs created with such expertise would be expected to resonate with peoples’ experience. The ‘New Human Factors’ tools and methods seek to support design activity by providing a more organised, systematic and (perhaps) objective way of capturing peoples’ experiential ‘aspirational’ needs.