DRS Digital Library - IASDR Conference Series: Embedding and embodying narratives in the collaborative development of life-changing healthcare technologies
 

Abstract

In order to empower communities of practice to move towards social and design justice, it is critical to advance the archetypal role of design from passively upholding dominant narratives, to proactively uncovering, interrogating and embedding a diversity and plurality of narratives throughout a design process. This research uses the case study of designing a novel upper-limb exoskeleton to facilitate a collaborative and multidisciplinary exploration of the emerging roles of narrative at various phases and levels of an inclusive mobility design project. The ‘Design as an Agent of Narratives’ conceptual framework is adopted, which assigns three strategic narrative roles to design i.e. (1) acknowledging and capturing; (2) negotiating and speculating; and (3) embedding and scaling narratives. This research focuses on the latter two stages of the framework i.e. establishing which narratives to include in the design and exploring how to incorporate them. A qualitative study is conducted to capture project stakeholders’ thoughts and expectations on which narratives to include as well as to map how narratives could and should be embedded within or scaled beyond the project-specific design process. The value of incorporating narrative into an inclusive design process is discussed, and practical suggestions are offered for designers seeking to embed and embody narratives through their work. We argue that narratives can be used in design to amplify and centre the voice of end-users, enhance shared and inclusive decision-making, challenge dominant mindsets, stereotypes and disciplinary bias, and democratise participation to ultimately help define, facilitate, and guide systemic transitions.

Keywords

Narrative; Inclusive Design; Collaborative; Multidisciplinary

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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Oct 9th, 9:00 AM

Embedding and embodying narratives in the collaborative development of life-changing healthcare technologies

In order to empower communities of practice to move towards social and design justice, it is critical to advance the archetypal role of design from passively upholding dominant narratives, to proactively uncovering, interrogating and embedding a diversity and plurality of narratives throughout a design process. This research uses the case study of designing a novel upper-limb exoskeleton to facilitate a collaborative and multidisciplinary exploration of the emerging roles of narrative at various phases and levels of an inclusive mobility design project. The ‘Design as an Agent of Narratives’ conceptual framework is adopted, which assigns three strategic narrative roles to design i.e. (1) acknowledging and capturing; (2) negotiating and speculating; and (3) embedding and scaling narratives. This research focuses on the latter two stages of the framework i.e. establishing which narratives to include in the design and exploring how to incorporate them. A qualitative study is conducted to capture project stakeholders’ thoughts and expectations on which narratives to include as well as to map how narratives could and should be embedded within or scaled beyond the project-specific design process. The value of incorporating narrative into an inclusive design process is discussed, and practical suggestions are offered for designers seeking to embed and embody narratives through their work. We argue that narratives can be used in design to amplify and centre the voice of end-users, enhance shared and inclusive decision-making, challenge dominant mindsets, stereotypes and disciplinary bias, and democratise participation to ultimately help define, facilitate, and guide systemic transitions.

 

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