What do you think of?

 

When I presented this talk, I asked the audience to describe what they imagined. They gave disparate answers, such as "expensive" and "comforting."

Both of these icons are of hospitals, but they convey unique characteristics.

 

This is also known as 'satisficing,' a term that originated in the late 1940s, but is now popular in the design world as a way to describe the user behavior of settling for what is the best of the available options, rather than seeking out the ideal answer to a problem. 

This model illustrates the degradation of nuance and meaning that can occur in a conversation between two individuals who already have a strong and personalized mental model of the subject being discussed. 

 

The architect, Jeremy Till, has used storytelling in his practice to synthesize understanding about urban environments.

Similarly, what if design researchers asked users to collaborate on a story? These two participants could begin to construct a common language by telling a fictional story. By not being bound by the truths of reality, fiction lowers the degree of both parties’ preconceived ideas about common structural elements in society, such as healthcare or education. Fictional stories allow the teller to explore idealizations and divulge personal realities under the guise of a character. Furthermore, the two participants can begin to create something that is not entirely defined by either of their experiences.

 

John Forrester states this, more elegantly, in Designing: Making Sense Together in Practical Conversations. He writes, “If form-giving is understood more deeply as an activity of making sense together, designing may then be situated in a social world where meaning, though often multiple, ambiguous, and conflicting, is nevertheless a perpetual practical accomplishment.” 

Fiction increases the variance and amount of nuance and description that a community member might use in a story. A creative re-imagining of the world increases requisite variety in the system by increasing the volume and variance in words and phrases available to be digested and understood. 

 

The model above illustrates how participants can use storytelling, prompted by narrative technique to develop a more common understanding of the subject at hand.

Lastly, this concept is formalized in a detailed and explicit model.