Design Moves Response

Chan Screven is a behavioral psychologist who showed Sharon how to prototype and user observe. Sharon had trouble designing things that could be understood by the audience. She couldn’t tell if she could communicate with them.  Chan told her that it was possible to interactively communicate with the audience by working with users that could generate vital innovative work. She now works at a design institute where they observe middle school children, identify problems and then develop prototypes that they bring to classrooms so kids can interact with their new designs. Sharon will show us ideas of how to change the design of design.

            Designers accessed social science to help develop their prototypes. The problem is trying to apply scientific research in the act of designing. Ideas remain abstract and removed from their actions. Sharon decides to develop a more organic and integrated designing process where the designers become fieldworkers and interact with the prototypes themselves. This changes the design process from being immersed and isolated to being more tangible and able to have users participate. Now the user is an important part of the process. The goal of this shift is to distance the prototype and the development of knowledge through pragmatic, actionable observations.

            Prototypes could be considered material conversation between the user and the designer. Objects help out understanding. Begin the design process with identifying the problem. It doesn’t always require observation. Discovering and developing the problem should not be trivial. Prototypes help develop information and critique design ideas before the team becomes too committed. This design process was given the name human centered design, because it focuses on human satisfaction with the objects and experiences designers strive to create.

            I consider her method of prototyping and taking down-to-earth observations to be effective. I find her points about interacting with the users to be a great way to truly discovering where the problems originate. This process only allows the growth of the prototype to ascend. Her passage gives true evidence as to why the process was given the name of human centered design.