Abstract
Problem Framing helps designers define issues they want to focus on and make issues more focused and addressable. In Industrial design and several other design disciplines, designers use ‘pain points’ or points of friction in the user experience to support problem framing and to elucidate areas where they can intervene and improve the experience of the person they are designing for. Many design challenges start with a search for ‘pain points’ that designers can solve. This is a specific and useful type of problem frame. However, this can lead to an excessive focus on (and even fetishization of) the pain and distress of other people. There is also tension around who defines the problem and why.
The focus on pain and deficit approaches can send problematic messaging about a community’s lived experience, reinforcing a one-dimensional portrayal of these people as depleted or broken (Leitão 2020; Tuck 2009). The ways in which issues are framed can depend on one’s positionality and point of view. In the same way that designers can choose to frame issues around pain points, they can also choose to frame issues with other starting points that are not pain and damage-centered.
Keywords
editorial
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs_lxd2021.00.314
Citation
Noel, L., Leitao, R.M., Korsmeyer, H., Beniwal, S.,and Winchester, W.W.(2021) Track 03: Alternative problem framing in design education, in Bohemia, E., Nielsen, L.M., Pan, L., Börekçi, N.A.G.Z., Zhang, Y. (eds.), Learn X Design 2021: Engaging with challenges in design education, 24-26 September, Shandong University of Art & Design, Jinan, China. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs_lxd2021.00.314
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Editorial
Included in
Track 03: Alternative problem framing in design education
Problem Framing helps designers define issues they want to focus on and make issues more focused and addressable. In Industrial design and several other design disciplines, designers use ‘pain points’ or points of friction in the user experience to support problem framing and to elucidate areas where they can intervene and improve the experience of the person they are designing for. Many design challenges start with a search for ‘pain points’ that designers can solve. This is a specific and useful type of problem frame. However, this can lead to an excessive focus on (and even fetishization of) the pain and distress of other people. There is also tension around who defines the problem and why.
The focus on pain and deficit approaches can send problematic messaging about a community’s lived experience, reinforcing a one-dimensional portrayal of these people as depleted or broken (Leitão 2020; Tuck 2009). The ways in which issues are framed can depend on one’s positionality and point of view. In the same way that designers can choose to frame issues around pain points, they can also choose to frame issues with other starting points that are not pain and damage-centered.