From Design Fiction to Design Friction: Speculative and Participatory Design of Values-Embedded Urban Technology
TL;DR: The Designing Policy project as mentioned in this paper, a series of workshops on the design of urban technologies, was held in Chicago, New York, and Boston during 2012-2013 with funding from the Urban Communication Foundation.
Abstract: This paper discusses the results of the Designing Policy project, which engages current debates about urban technology through the creation of a visual toolkit and a series of workshops. The workshops were held in Chicago, New York, and Boston during 2012–2013 with funding from the Urban Communication Foundation. The purpose of the project was three-fold: (1) to open up the “black box” of urban technology in order to reveal the politics embedded in city infrastructures; (2) to move beyond discussions of urban problems and solutions, and towards a more conceptual future-oriented space; and (3) to explore the use of design methods such as visual prototypes and participatory design. This article introduces the concept of design friction as a way of understanding the ways in which conflicts, tensions and disagreements can move complex socio-technical discussions forward where they can be worked out through material engagement in hands-on prototyping.
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02 May 2017
TL;DR: It is argued that design methods shape not only use practices, but have consequences for the life worlds of professional designers, which includes how they impact personal and national identities, confer legitimacy in transnational innovation circles, and secure access to social and economic resources.
Abstract: Through their combination of lifestyle and method, Silicon Valley models for tech production such as design thinking, startup incubators, lean management, etc. are spreading across the globe. These paradigms are positioned by product designers, politicians, investors and corporations alike as replicable routes to individual and national empowerment. They are portrayed as universal templates, portable across national borders and applicable to local needs. We draw from our ethnographic engagements with tech entrepreneurial efforts in Ghana, China, and Jamaica to unpack the stakes involved in their uptake, showing that while local actors produce situated alternatives, their work nevertheless often results in a continued valorization of these seemingly universal methods. We argue that design methods shape not only use practices, but have consequences for the life worlds of professional designers. This includes how they impact personal and national identities, confer legitimacy in transnational innovation circles, and secure access to social and economic resources. Ultimately, we call for an inclusion of these factors in ongoing conversations about design and design methods.
52 citations
Cites background from "From Design Fiction to Design Frict..."
...Feminist HCI [3, 4], research through design [51, 17], speculative design [16, 31], reflective design [44], and many other approaches all share a commitment to envisioning alternatives to what counts as good design, as well as who and what is included in doing so....
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18 Jun 2019
TL;DR: The speculative attack-vectors and design ideas generated by participants expose, for the first time, survivors' understanding of smart home security and privacy, as well as their needs, concerns, and requirements.
Abstract: This paper presents a design-led qualitative study investigating the (mis)use of digital technologies as tools for stalking, threats, and harassment within the context of intimate partner abuse (IPA). Results from interviews and domestic abuse forum data are reported on and set the foundation for a series of codesign workshops. The workshops invite participants to creatively anticipate smart home attack vectors, based on their lived experiences of IPA. Three workshops with seven IPA survivors and eleven professional support workers are detailed in this paper. Findings are organised into three phases through which survivors' privacy and security needs can be understood: 1) initial purchasing and configuring of smart home devices; 2) daily usage and; 3) (re-)securing devices after abuse has been identified. The speculative attack-vectors and design ideas generated by participants expose, for the first time, survivors' understanding of smart home security and privacy, as well as their needs, concerns, and requirements.
47 citations
Cites methods from "From Design Fiction to Design Frict..."
...Furthermore, complementary design methods, such as speculative tools, are often used alongside codesign to move beyond immediate need and problem identification, into generative, speculative, and future-oriented ideation [24]....
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Journal Article•
TL;DR: Anthony Dunne's Hertzian Tales as discussed by the authors is an exploration of the aesthetic and conceptual aspects of industrial design and its potential to bring about social change for the users of electronic objects.
Abstract: Anthony Dunne’s Hertzian Tales is an exploration of the aesthetic and conceptual aspects of industrial design and its potential to bring about social change for the users of electronic objects. It is a provoking and – to first-time readers – positively alarming social commentary on the interrelationship between electronic product design and culture, and the powerful but largely under-explored potential of electronic innovation to trigger social awareness. Hertzian Tales proposes an innovative approach to critical design and therefore serves as a reflection on and a critique of the commercial design practices at large. In this second edition, Dunne reiterates the original rationale for his project: a concern that the majority of industrial designers have unwittingly joined a treadmill culture of post-industrial mass-production – turning out electronic goods that have long simply met the brief of an optimally functioning and eagerly consumable technology.
45 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors bring together current research that transforms how communities and academics identify, study, and collectively respond to contaminants engendered by the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries, including air contamination from hydraulic fracking, marine pollution from petroleum-derived plastics, and hydrocarbon derivatives such as formaldehyde that intoxicate our homes.
Abstract: The high stakes of emergent environmental crises, from climate change to widespread toxic exposures, have motivated STS practitioners to innovate methodologically, including leveraging STS scholarship to actively remake environmental scientific practice and technologies. This thematic collection brings together current research that transforms how communities and academics identify, study, and collectively respond to contaminants engendered by the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries, including air contamination from hydraulic fracking, marine pollution from petroleum-derived plastics, and hydrocarbon derivatives such as formaldehyde that intoxicate our homes. These interventions make inroads into the “undone science” and “regimes of imperceptibility” of environmental health crises. Authors, most of whom are practitioners, investigate grassroots methods for collaboratively designing and developing low-cost monitoring tools, crowdsourcing data analysis, and imagining ways of redressing toxicity outside of the idioms of science. Collectively, these articles work towards remaking how knowledge is made about and across industrial systems by networking community grounded approaches for accounting for environmental health issues created by the fossil fuels and allied petrochemical industries.
43 citations
23 Oct 2016
TL;DR: The concept of 'design fiction probes', critical narratives to elicit open-ended responses from potential future users of proposed technologies to explore potential consequences of the use of technologies before they actually exist are introduced.
Abstract: This paper introduces the concept of 'design fiction probes', critical narratives to elicit open-ended responses from potential future users of proposed technologies. Inspired and guided by academic literature, such a fictional narrative allows the reader to explore potential consequences of the use of technologies before they actually exist. The method is illustrated by a design fiction on the topic of smart houses and their potential applications for chronic conditions, such as dementia. Based on constant monitoring and automated responses, these technologies have been criticized on ethical grounds. As these devices are not yet widely commercially available, little is known about their real-world impact. By bringing together what is known to write a fictional account from acquisition to end of use, the design fiction can be used both for research or the design process. Potential uses are presented within this paper.
29 citations
Cites background from "From Design Fiction to Design Frict..."
...Critical design is particular useful in eliciting readers responses by providing accessible methods of communication and presenting complex relationships [15, 12]....
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References
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TL;DR: Consider writing, perhaps the first information technology: The ability to capture a symbolic representation of spoken language for long-term storage freed information from the limits of individual memory.
Abstract: Specialized elements of hardware and software, connected by wires, radio waves and infrared, will soon be so ubiquitous that no-one will notice their presence.
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TL;DR: A model of how one group of actors managed this tension between divergent viewpoints was presented, drawing on the work of amateurs, professionals, administrators and others connected to the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley, during its early years.
Abstract: Scientific work is heterogeneous, requiring many different actors and viewpoints. It also requires cooperation. The two create tension between divergent viewpoints and the need for generalizable findings. We present a model of how one group of actors managed this tension. It draws on the work of amateurs, professionals, administrators and others connected to the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley, during its early years. Extending the Latour-Callon model of interessement, two major activities are central for translating between viewpoints: standardization of methods, and the development of 'boundary objects'. Boundary objects are both adaptable to different viewpoints and robust enough to maintain identity across them. We distinguish four types of boundary objects: repositories, ideal types, coincident boundaries and standardized forms.
7,800 citations
"From Design Fiction to Design Frict..." refers background in this paper
...Since the theories from science and technology studies are primarily published in academic journals, the toolkit can be understood as a boundary object (Star and Griesemer, 1989) that bridges multiple communities including scientific experts, policymakers, and amateurs....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a model of how one group of actors managed the tension between divergent viewpoints and the need for generalizable findings in scientific work, and distinguish four types of boundary objects: repositories, ideal types, coincident boundaries and standardized forms.
Abstract: Scientific work is heterogeneous, requiring many different actors and viewpoints. It also requires cooperation. The two create tension between divergent viewpoints and the need for generalizable findings. We present a model of how one group of actors managed this tension. It draws on the work of amateurs, professionals, administrators and others connected to the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley, during its early years. Extending the Latour-Callon model of interessement, two major activities are central for translating between viewpoints: standardization of methods, and the development of `boundary objects'. Boundary objects are both adaptable to different viewpoints and robust enough to maintain identity across them. We distinguish four types of boundary objects: repositories, ideal types, coincident boundaries and standardized forms.
7,634 citations
5,646 citations
"From Design Fiction to Design Frict..." refers background in this paper
...…on science and technology studies in order to emphasize the importance of understanding the ways in which socio-technical artifacts and infrastructures (Star, 1999) are imbued with socio-political values (Winner, 1986; Bijker et al., 1987; Nissenbaum, 2001) and invisible actors (Latour, 2005)....
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TL;DR: The evolution in design research from a user-centred approach to co-designing is changing the roles of the designer, the researcher and the person formerly known as the "user" as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Designers have been moving increasingly closer to the future users of what they design and the next new thing in the changing landscape of design research has become co-designing with your users. But co-designing is actually not new at all, having taken distinctly different paths in the US and in Europe. The evolution in design research from a user-centred approach to co-designing is changing the roles of the designer, the researcher and the person formerly known as the ‘user’. The implications of this shift for the education of designers and researchers are enormous. The evolution in design research from a user-centred approach to co-designing is changing the landscape of design practice as well, creating new domains of collective creativity. It is hoped that this evolution will support a transformation toward more sustainable ways of living in the future.
3,692 citations
"From Design Fiction to Design Frict..." refers result in this paper
...Rather than treating participants as research subjects, we understood them to be partners in a research process in line with recent thinking about moving beyond “designing for” and towards “designing with” (Schuler and Namioka, 1993; Winner, 1986; Sanders and Stappers, 2008)....
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