Here's the long-overdue post about what it is that I'm actually doing in Denmark.
Context
Most of you know that I am finishing up my master's degree at the UW in the field of human-centered design. This essentially means that I'm heading into a career designing the interfaces for websites and software applications. By "design" I don't mean graphic design. Think architecture. Designers in my field are concerned with topics such as navigation, information design, consistency, usability, and utility.
How many times have you visited a website and gotten lost among confusing menus or too many poorly organized options? If you're buying something on a shopping website, is it clear what all the checkout steps are and when your credit card is going to be charged? Do you have to re-enter the same information every time you open a certain application? These are the sorts of problems I work on. They're not the job of a computer developer, and they're not the job of the visual designer. They're the job of the user-experience designer.
As someone being trained in "human-centered design" I am concerned with making sure that all or most of my design decisions have some basis in what people care about, rather than using my own personal opinion to guide the decisions. Within the "human-centered design" domain, there are some specific design methodologies, one of which is called participatory design.
Participatory Design
I came to Denmark to learn more about participatory design, a design methodology that emerged from Scandinavia around the 1970s. At that time, computer systems were being introduced to workplaces for the first time, and the trade unions felt their workers would be displaced in favor of automation. Some people viewed technology as a threat wielded by managers to take the upper hand in the workplace.
So the trade unions pressed for their workers to have seats at the table when the management discussed and made decisions about how technology would be introduced. This worked well in the Scandinavian culture, where equity is highly valued and where trade unions have historically been a strong force. At that time, this type of design was called cooperative design. A few years later it gained some interest in the United States, but the "cooperative" label didn't quite fly, so the term "participatory" gained favor.
Since the late 1980s and early 1990s, participatory design has spread from Scandinavia to become a popular technology design methodology all over the world. The ideals of cooperation, equity, and freedom have resonated with many people. And from a pragmatic perspective, many people are drawn to the idea that by incorporating your targeted audience in the design phase, the final product is more likely to reflect the needs and desires of your targeted audience.
In an interesting coincidence for me, the first world participatory design conference happened in 1990 in Seattle, and they have continued every two years--most recently in Denmark in the summer of 2012.
My Project
When I heard about a fellowship opportunity available for UW students to study in Denmark, I applied immediately. This would be a great way, I thought, to combine my interests of technology design, participatory design, and travel.
My project consists of a series of interviews with relevant design researchers from Denmark. So far I've talked with professors at Roskilde, Aalborg, and Aarhus universities. The latter two are pretty far north, which required some travel, but today I'm going from Aarhus to Copenhagen where I'll more or less stay put for the next five weeks or so.
Hopefully this little summary makes more sense of my project. Email me if you want to learn more!
Context
Most of you know that I am finishing up my master's degree at the UW in the field of human-centered design. This essentially means that I'm heading into a career designing the interfaces for websites and software applications. By "design" I don't mean graphic design. Think architecture. Designers in my field are concerned with topics such as navigation, information design, consistency, usability, and utility.
How many times have you visited a website and gotten lost among confusing menus or too many poorly organized options? If you're buying something on a shopping website, is it clear what all the checkout steps are and when your credit card is going to be charged? Do you have to re-enter the same information every time you open a certain application? These are the sorts of problems I work on. They're not the job of a computer developer, and they're not the job of the visual designer. They're the job of the user-experience designer.
As someone being trained in "human-centered design" I am concerned with making sure that all or most of my design decisions have some basis in what people care about, rather than using my own personal opinion to guide the decisions. Within the "human-centered design" domain, there are some specific design methodologies, one of which is called participatory design.
Participatory Design
I came to Denmark to learn more about participatory design, a design methodology that emerged from Scandinavia around the 1970s. At that time, computer systems were being introduced to workplaces for the first time, and the trade unions felt their workers would be displaced in favor of automation. Some people viewed technology as a threat wielded by managers to take the upper hand in the workplace.
So the trade unions pressed for their workers to have seats at the table when the management discussed and made decisions about how technology would be introduced. This worked well in the Scandinavian culture, where equity is highly valued and where trade unions have historically been a strong force. At that time, this type of design was called cooperative design. A few years later it gained some interest in the United States, but the "cooperative" label didn't quite fly, so the term "participatory" gained favor.
Since the late 1980s and early 1990s, participatory design has spread from Scandinavia to become a popular technology design methodology all over the world. The ideals of cooperation, equity, and freedom have resonated with many people. And from a pragmatic perspective, many people are drawn to the idea that by incorporating your targeted audience in the design phase, the final product is more likely to reflect the needs and desires of your targeted audience.
In an interesting coincidence for me, the first world participatory design conference happened in 1990 in Seattle, and they have continued every two years--most recently in Denmark in the summer of 2012.
My Project
When I heard about a fellowship opportunity available for UW students to study in Denmark, I applied immediately. This would be a great way, I thought, to combine my interests of technology design, participatory design, and travel.
My project consists of a series of interviews with relevant design researchers from Denmark. So far I've talked with professors at Roskilde, Aalborg, and Aarhus universities. The latter two are pretty far north, which required some travel, but today I'm going from Aarhus to Copenhagen where I'll more or less stay put for the next five weeks or so.
Hopefully this little summary makes more sense of my project. Email me if you want to learn more!
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