Design games as a tool, a mindset and a structure Kirsikka Vaajakallio

Subjectivity of user’s experiences can be considered as consisting of two
parts: what is provided through design and what the user brings into the
interaction (Sanders 2002). Moreover, besides people’s current experience
(the moment), it addresses past experiences (memories) and future experiences
(dreams) as well (Sanders 2001).
It has been acknowledged that experiences as such cannot be designed,
but as Sanders (2002) proposes we can design for experiencing, in Evenson’s
(2005, p 153) words by designing “resources to support the activities in the experience
process”. According to Sanders, designing for experiencing demands
new mindset in two ways: Firstly, the focus shifts from things we design such
as objects, services, and interfaces to people we are designing for (2002). Secondly,
since experiencing is in people “it’s about designing with people and
not just for them” (2001, p 219). This perspective assumes that everyone is
creative and can become a design partner already in the early design process
if provided with appropriate tools instead of allowing to stay as a passive
consumer or a user (ibid.). Accordingly, Sanders is critical of the notion of
users and uses instead the terms ordinary or everyday people to denote design
process participants without design education (e.g. 2001).
Because in the beginning of my research I was inspired by Sanders’
work on generative methods, including Make Tools and other visual tool
kits (www.maketools.com), I have been influenced by her views on UCD
in many ways. However, for the sake of simplicity, I find it appropriate
to use the term user even if I agree with Sanders that the term does not
imply creative contribution other people – besides designers – may have
in the design process. In participatory design (PD), Ehn and Kyng (1991)
have proposed designing users for a similar purpose. What these both
suggestions denote is the active role in design given to people who are
affected by it. And whereas designing users may not be sufficient in all
user-centred design activities, for example users may be observed or interviewed,
it is descriptive for an approach or rather a mindset in which
users are seen as design partners instead of passive informants.
Fig. 10
From objects to people
From designing for people designing with people
Over last decade there has been a shift from focusing on products to focusing on people. Furthermore,
while design has moved beyond products, users have been given more power in the
design process.
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