Cultures of Use
In my current profession I lead research for varied design projects. Most of this research is user-centered in terms of feedback and inspiration. Throughout the years and around the world I've engaged with thousands of people concerning a diverse set of design problems. In these engagements, or what I would call collaborations to a large extent, I've asked people to engage in fairly sophisticated creative activities. In these activities I've witnessed an ability in people to fluidly be a part (participant) of the design issue at hand and give meaningful inputs, as if they were trained in art of quick hit creativity. This got me thinking. In design Research do we create cultures of use by identifying segments of people (end-users) and then ask them to participate in the innovation of that cultural domain? It's a positive reinforcement of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.
We alter those things we seek to measure, but here we alter them for the better though a shared understanding that as a collaborative force, designer / end-user we are changing the thing or situation in question.
Participants in focus groups (the assumed forefather of Design Research) have learned over the years to adapt to the conditions of those research engagements. This is because the structures of those engagements rarely change. Participants learn the appropriate responses, give those responses and then bolt with the reward only to target later focus groups with similar motives. The measurement is tainted by the participants motives.
In collaborating with end-users through design actions (drawing, collage, sorting,etc.) rather that rapid fire opinion scraping we we create temporary cultures within the framework of a design goal. Participants become aware of their affiliations with a targeted user segment (small world) and how their creative input begins to shape the devices/experiences of that segment.
But essentially it's up to us as designers, with clients, to define those cultures of use and make the connections that fit them into a larger context. Let's start small, even at a device level, with these cultures and work to connect the dots between them to understand how they shape culture at large.
This also raises the idea that as we explore these cultures, it's often at a local level. In Design Research the connections are going to become richer, more detailed, as we begin to experience and engage at a hyperlocal level.
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