Week+9+volos

Week 9: Design as a Collaborative Process
Design as a collaborative process, as defined by Bruce Mau, revolves around working with people of different backgrounds, brainstorming together and generating new ideas. He stresses on the idea of togetherness and the vital role of being part of a team. The designing process is well carried out in an intimate setting where team members are able to discuss and share their ideas. It is also important to involve the users, whom the new product is designed or re-designed for. For example, Bruce Mau illustrates this via his example of the design of ear, nose and throat surgery apparatus. This way, the surgeons can provide them with valuable, objective hands-on advice, as they will be the end users. This is known as 'participatory design'. The design team thought it to be very effective to involve the surgeons in the design process.

Mr. Mau also uses an example of American Red Cross blood donation to illustrate his idea. This project involved people in the research process, with an ultimate goal of increasing the numbers of donors and encouraging blood donation. They found that by taking a photo of a donor and asking them to write a brief description, a narrative of why they have donated humanized the process. It had made the actual donors feel like they have made an important contribution. As for the other people who have not yet donated, the photos with short descriptions made the donors feel more real.

Some great examples of collaborative design process are displayed on IDEO Tim Brown's blog. One particular example if the '[|Virtual Wallet]' created for the PNC Bank. An important aspect of the design of this "Virtual Wallet" was examining the values of generation Y, the younger, more technologically driven generation. http://www.ideo.com/work/item/virtual-wallet-interactive-banking-experience/

Back To Mariya's Page CCT333 Home