December 2010 Update

Participatory Design Conference Feedback

• I, as a designer, would like to know what I'd do differently according to Agency Sensitive Design.
  • I'd try to apply it.
• At this stage, only one lens for the designer seem to be sufficient.
  • In future, you may work on the ways in which every actor can create their own lenses of ASD.
• You might imagine it like a toolkit for designers for taking into consideration different forms of agency.
• Claudia Ciborra's work, how can we invite technology as guests, how can we host it as a guest?
  • inviting the artefacts to the dance.
• Now, this is a different definition of participation, artefacts and humans together.
  • participating artefacts with material agency
• Jonas Lowgren's work and Don Svanaes's works.
• What skills do I, as a designer, need to do ASD?
• Every innovation builds on existing practices by Suchman
• Agency's role in shaping design and design's role in shaping agency
• We can not do everything bottom up!
• Doing or comparing both user centered and activity centered design might not be doable in the current time frame.
• Role of grounding activities in shaping design and agency?
• Can the forms of agency be defined as the type of actions humans engaged in?
  • agency-> capacity to act
  • form of agency -> capacity to understand
  • form of agency -> capacity to move
  • form of agency -> capacity to perceive/sense
  • ...
  • different forms of agency -> capacity to ????
• Two main sensitivities can be related to relationality and participating/influencing non-humans/artefacts
• Concept of temporary assemblies is a good one!
• Assemblies and matters of concerns are/can be emergent!!
  • mutual isolated spaces and matters of concern >> read paper by Latour and Asa
• >>> Some general Participatory Design Concernsd and Inspirations
  
  • who to involve?
  • how to involve?
  • involving users as not passive service demanders or info containers but active co-creators of service
  • seeing anything as a resource for design,
  • challenging the taken-for-granted conceptions of agency/norms/values and seeing them as generative tools/activities
    • for instance, previous habits and experiences and generally motives of differences as not something to avoid or overcome but things to support and embrace again more genrally as resources!
  • enjoyment or relaxation might not be necessarily the targets for my participatory activities
    • painful participation can be a gain for the participants as well??
    • and then can inform the design
  • looking at or approaching the results of workshops from different points of views/ values is very useful!h

PDC2010 Doctoral Consortium Presentation

INTERACT PAPER - Agency Sensitive Design

Due date: Jan 24

Long paper: 14 pages

First draft- outline: pdf file

DESIGN and AGENCY RELATIONS

1. Agency’s role in design:

• • How do different agencies involved in technology production phase shape design problem and process?
    • In technology production phase, there may be designers, potential users and any other human actors and material artefacts participating in this process. An assemblage of humans and artefacts and their various connections or couplings may result in agencies in different forms and degrees. These different forms of agencies may shape the design process and design problem itself.
    • How much are we aware of the fact that the different configurations of human and artefact assemblages may bring about different forms of agencies?
    • How much are we aware of the impact of different agencies on definition and transformation of the design problem?
  • How do different conceptions of agency shape design?
    • Humans involved in production phase might have different conceptions and perceptions of agency. These different conceptions of agency may affect the design decision implicitly or may cause misattribution of agency and hence unintended outcomes.
    • We design according to whose conception of agency?
    • How much are we aware of our and others’ conceptions of agencies during design?
  • How does the extent of consideration of agency shape design?
    • Some designers may include agency-related qualities in design problem at a great extent, whereas some others may not consider any of them. While lack of consideration may result in problems related to accountability, responsibility, and ethics, an excess amount of consideration may lead to problems related to over-amplification of differences, unceasing value conflicts, privacy and surveillance. Moreover, a careful consideration of agency-related qualities may result in responsible and ethical design practices, new more harmonious integrations and couplings between humans and artefacts and may expand our potential for action.
    • How much are we aware of benefits and costs of addressing or not addressing agency-related qualities in design problem?

2. Design’s role in agency:

• • How do different design approaches shape agencies involved in production and use of technologies?
    • Design process can be organized in such a way that it can facilitate formation of some particular configurations (assemblages) of humans and artefacts, while preventing some other ones to be formed. Design process can invite particular kinds of actions, while inhibiting some others. The artefacts can be designed in such a way that they can privilege values of some actors while ignoring the values of some other ones.
    • How much are we aware of the impact of design process we follow on formation of agencies involved in technology production and formation of agencies involved in technology use?
      
    
    
    
    

Planned Research Process and expected Outcomes

Work Plan Diagram

ASD lenses for the designer