A project which endeavours tostrengthen the connection betweendesigners and their audience to supportand enhance the design process.
In order for designers to inspire,provoke and provide they need tounderstand the needs and desires ofothers. By involving and observingpeople in their own context, ‘Play YourPart’ aims to help designers overcomesome of the obstacles which preventthem from experiencing those insightfulmoments that support and guide theirpractice.
‘Play Your Part’ is a conceptual platformthat distributes discrete tasks to a wideaudience of participants who are invitedto engage with the defining aspects ofemerging projects. Through analysisand active appreciation of audiencefeedback, designers can gain insights toinform the creation of interactions thatmay one day influence the audiencedirectly.
The Project
Play Your Part started as an exploration into thekinds of challenges design ethnography canencounter. Through research, I identified someof the challenges of involving users in the designprocess and decided that user participation was an area I would be interested in exploringfrom an interaction design perspective. As userinvolvement is one of the fundamental parts of ethnography, I tried to think in-depth aboutthe interactions that both the ethnographersand participants encounter and contemplatedhow technology and design could be usedto challenge some of the obstacles involved.Throughout the project I communicated withethnographers, designers and participants,which helped me to develop a concept thatexplores the experience of connecting peoplewith design related projects.
By largely concentrating on the participationside of the platform I was able to think deeperinto how users would interact with such aservice and was able to take into considerationthings such as game mechanics, levels of trustand appreciation. Iteration of the visual andexperience design was a big part of the project,and gave me a good foundation on which toprototype. For the demo I created an iPhoneapplication which shows the experience from theparticipants point of view. With this I was able to show the kinds of tasks that ethnographersand designers would invite participants to takepart in and in turn, the level of involvement thatthey can feel good about having. My hope is thatexploration into this area will spark conversationsabout how the widely available technology oftoday could be used to further involve people inthe pursuit of appropriate and innovative design.
Play Your Part started as an exploration into thekinds of challenges design ethnography canencounter. Through research, I identified someof the challenges of involving users in the designprocess and decided that user participation was an area I would be interested in exploringfrom an interaction design perspective. As userinvolvement is one of the fundamental parts of ethnography, I tried to think in-depth aboutthe interactions that both the ethnographersand participants encounter and contemplatedhow technology and design could be usedto challenge some of the obstacles involved.Throughout the project I communicated withethnographers, designers and participants,which helped me to develop a concept thatexplores the experience of connecting peoplewith design related projects.
By largely concentrating on the participationside of the platform I was able to think deeperinto how users would interact with such aservice and was able to take into considerationthings such as game mechanics, levels of trustand appreciation. Iteration of the visual andexperience design was a big part of the project,and gave me a good foundation on which toprototype. For the demo I created an iPhoneapplication which shows the experience from theparticipants point of view. With this I was able to show the kinds of tasks that ethnographersand designers would invite participants to takepart in and in turn, the level of involvement thatthey can feel good about having. My hope is thatexploration into this area will spark conversationsabout how the widely available technology oftoday could be used to further involve people inthe pursuit of appropriate and innovative design.
