Designer Experience:
Exploring Ways to Design in Experience

Accepted Papers

Here are the accepted papers for the Designer Experience workshop in alphabetical order by the first author followed by the slides presented at the workshop.

Enhancing designers' experience of the final product by using Virtual Environment

Authors: Susanna Aromaa, Kaj Helin

Abstract: This paper describes how the use of Virtual Environment (VE) will increase the designers' experience of final product already in early phase of design process. In this paper is presented one case study about the checking the driver's field of view within focus group in VE. This shows the advantages of the use of VE and also effects to the design process that occur when enhancing the designers' experience.

Aromaa.pdf - Aromaa-slides.pdf

Design for Extreme Settings: Becoming the User

Authors: Tom Bartindale

Abstract: When replicated in a prototyping environment, many of the factors that comprise the essence of collaborative interaction scenarios are lost. These lost factors can be classed as extreme, in that by their very nature they only appear in the true setting. In order to better design for these settings we can temporarily become the user. By configuring the design process to ensure a direct experience for the designer, it can become not just contextual but autobiographical. In doing this the designer becomes intimately involved in the context of use and assumes a personal stake. By letting the interaction designer integrate into the environment these elusive extreme factors are revealed, observed and can be factored into the design. We present a case study of design in an extreme setting in which our designer became a user in the scenario and discuss how personal designer experience influences the outcome.

Bartindale.pdf - Bartindale-slides.pdf

Personal Experience and Hermeneutic Design

Authors: Jill Fantauzzacoffin

Abstract: This paper presents an example of a design conceptualization process that draws heavily on personal everyday experience. This activity would not be recognized as valid for research or practice within a rationalist framework, yet it results in concrete knowledge and a design. Phenomenological hermeneutics are used to theorize and validate the relationship between design and experience.

Fantauzzacoffin.pdf - Fantauzzacoffin-slides.pdf

Designer Experience Through Magical Bits

Authors: Katja Grufberg, Lars Erik Holmquist

Abstract: This paper describes a method for designers to brainstorm around, and to experience, an end product before it is even conceptualized. Magical Bits are simple physical models representing the main property of the technology and the main function of the future end product. Knowing the end product's main function, and using these models as if they were working products, can help to put the experience in focus. By stepping away from the computer, technical limitations and "single solution thinking", the aim of this method is to let a designer develop through experiencing the users' perceptions and emotions.

Grufberg.pdf - Grufberg-slides.pdf

Physical, Cognitive and Contextual - the Gulf between Older People and Designers Experiences

Authors: Stephen Lindsay, Anja Thieme, Patrick Olivier

Abstract: We consider Designer Experience (DX) in the context of user experience and explain how we break experience down into its physical, cognitive and contextual aspects. We use this to develop an explanation of the challenges to understanding older users' experiences and look at methods we have employed to increase our understanding. We focus on video creation, its similarity to therapeutic role play and its potential to facilitate DX. We conclude by speculating about the potential role of iterative participatory design in DX, particularly hard challenges to DX in the domain of design with older users and some of DX's possible limitations.

Lindsay.pdf - Lindsay-slides.pdf

From Human Factors to Human Actors to Human Crafters: Principles Supporting Design in Use

Authors: Monica Maceli

Abstract: Meta-design theory emphasizes that designers can never anticipate all future uses of their system, as users shape their environments in response to emerging needs; systems should therefore be designed to adapt to future conditions in the hands of end users. For most of human history, all design was meta-design; designers were also users. However, advances in technology introduced a divide between the skilled producers and unskilled consumers of technology, and between design time and use time. As our technological environments increase in complexity, meta-designers must provide the flexibility for users to create and shape their own tools. This paper describes the early phases of a research study identifying key principles for meta-designers and exploring their potential use as design heuristics.

Maceli.pdf - Maceli-slides.pdf

Experience Characters as Design Tool: An Attempt for the Automotive Context

Authors: Marianna Obrist, Daniela Wurhofer, Elke Beck, Manfred Tscheligi

Abstract: As part of a long-term seven-year project we aim at a better understanding of target users/groups in the automotive context, especially focusing on their user experience. Although designers can easily make assumptions about drivers and their possible experiences, they will never be able to fully grasp the experiences of different types of car drivers. Within this paper, we state that due to the very subjective nature of experiences of individual people it is more realistic to provide designers with rich in-depth information on their targeted users instead of helping them to experience like future users. Based on a qualitative text analysis study, we identified an initial set of four car experience types, which are further translated into socalled experience characters. An exemplary experience character is presented as an initial attempt for a design tool in an experience-centered design process.

Obrist.pdf - Obrist-slides.pdf

Providing Feedback to UX Designers Using UX Evaluation Methods

Authors: Michael M. Pirker, Regina Bernhaupt

Abstract: User-centered Design (UCD) and User Experience (UX) have become important keywords when developing and designing products and services that aim to be successful and competitive on the market. In the area of entertainment oriented services, like interactive TV, new challenges arise, shifting the focus from task-based usability to highly personal, context-dependent use experiences. In order to improve UX design and assist designers by providing valuable feedback in various development stages, we propose the usage of a set of UX evaluation methods dedicated to the evaluation of entertainment oriented services.

Pirker.pdf - Pirker-slides.pdf

Let the contents lead the way - formulating DX from the information contents of users' mental representations

Authors: Rebekah Rousi, Pertti Saariluoma

Abstract: This paper describes a study investigating user experience (UX) evaluations from a user psychological perspective. The research specifically analyses the information contents given by end-users when qualitatively evaluating design products ranging from: 2D experience (mobile phone UI icons) and 3D experience (handheld/tangible items). The idea has been to observe the types and dimensions of mental information contents that are generated in users' mind when encountering designs. The information contents observed includes the following dimensions: cognitive, technical/practical, aesthetic and emotional. Currently, a framework of mental information contents is being developed, designed to assist designers in understanding generalized types of UXs triggered in relation to various designs and related characteristics. The goal of this framework is to provide designers with direct insight, into the minds of users, to generate Designer Experience (DX) to allow them to more adequately design for experience.

Rousi.pdf

Act it! How to design interaction patterns "beyond the desktop"

Authors: Elisa Rubegni

Abstract: The design of interactive systems based on the physical manipulation of objects for accessing digital contents should take into account the complex interplay of mind, body and the environment. The interaction patterns have to be natural and intuitive for the user, as well as integrated in their daily physical lives. The design process has to be dedicated to investigating the forms and the meaning of the interaction patterns: the definition of the input form and the output form is essential for understanding the impact on user's activity. Prototyping is the key for a successful design process, and, in particular, scenario dramatization can be very effective in exploring these design issues. In the paper, this technique is explained by illustrating a project in which the resulting interaction patterns have been designed by an active engagement of the team in acting the scenario and envisioning the possible solutions.

Rubegni.pdf - Rubegni-slides.pdf

Designer Experience: Exploring Ways to Design in Experience