Language learning in the wild - Lorenzo Polo, Anna Clara Rendahl, Frida Åberg

Learning Swedish "in the wild" - Nelson, Maren & Tove

Learning Swedish "in the wild" - Fanny, Ela & Jenny

Journey Map

During this assignment we met with Yaser, who is a studying Svenska För Invandrare (SFI) at Folkuniversitetet. We met him twice and at the first meeting we made a Journey Map of his previous day. From the information he gave us we identified key moments in his everyday life to further explore possible service encounters. 

Experience Prototyping

To test our ideas we made basic prototypes so we could test the experience at our next meeting with Yaser.

Website

A collection of existing services and tools for learning Swedish. It could be connected to another service / company or as a part of the learning materials given from SFI. 

Board game

A game based on the subway system map to be used in a static context such as Språkcafé or home, for extending vocabulary. The colours of the three lines stands for the word classes; nouns, adjectives and verbs. 

Subway game

A game based on the subway stations, to be used when travelling with the subway. For example Liljeholmen can be divided into Lilja and Holme, with written clues on one side and images on the other, resulting in learning a subway station and two new Swedish words. The game is meant to work as conversation starter with Swedish people. 

Conclusion

The proposals we tested with Yaser did not work as we thought but gave us a lot of insights in how we could change them. The interaction was the most valuable and would probably never had happened if the three of us weren't in the roles of "researchers".
/ Fanny Carlsson, Ela Celary and Jenny Markstedt

Assignment 4 - Service

Assignment 4 explores ‘service’ processes in design, taking a starting point in design’s growing role in the area of public and social service provision. A challenge of design in this area has been how to engage with those who should receive public and social services such as education and care, ie. the widest possible diversity of people. Public services are often dynamic and rely upon co-production between “users”, service providers, and other actors. To address this, design methods have learned from sociology, anthropology and hybrid methods such as co-design. These approaches transform the role of people other than designers in design, in which they are not considered as passive recipients of services delivered to them but as active, knowledgeable and creative.

In this assignment, we start with a particular group of people in a specific context – adult Swedish-language learners in Tensta. Students explore different ways of understanding and engaging the practicalities of their lives, their knowledge and creativity, informed by methods from design anthropology. The goal is to develop a design proposal for how language learning can be further supported in the everyday life of learners. The assignment will also be guided by guest teachers Brendon Clark and Kajsa Davidsson from Interactive Institute Swedish ICT.

This assignment starts Jan 7 and concludes with a Show-&-tell on Jan 17. There are two tasks in the assignment, one focused on learning from people and context, the other on making and trying out a design proposal. The reading circle discusses these:

• Clark, B., Wagner, J., Lindemalm, K., Bendt, O. (2011) Språkskap: Supporting Second Language Learning “In the Wild”. Proceedings of INCLUDE conference.
• Sangiorgi, D., and Clark, B. (2004) Toward a Participatory Design Approach to Service Design. Proceedings of the Participatory Design Conference.

Assignment 1&2 – Material and commercial processes

Assignment 1 and 2 build on one another. As a source of inspiration, we start by sharing a focus with the project ‘From Materiality to Policymaking’, an ongoing research project funded by Mistra, led by Mikael Lindström (Innventia), Bo Westerlund and Jenny Althoff (Konstfack). The project develops design-led research on cellulose-based textile, a material that is more sustainable than many others but which as yet is limited in its applications and acceptance in the public sector and care settings. Jenny Althoff is a guest teacher for these assignments.



Assignment 1 explores material-based design processes. We take a point of departure in the fiber-based materials provided in class. Textile, or cloth, is sometimes referred to as our 'second skin', suggesting a quite intimate relationship. We are as humans throughout life involved with textiles on different levels and in various scales – from the very first piece of cloth we are wrapped in as newborns to textile construction at an architectural scale. For about the first million years of human history, there were only about five materials, but today there are countless possible material combinations. While starting with materials might seem unconventional for industrial design, Ezio Manzini (Materials of Invention, London, Design Council, 1989) argues that inventing materials, marterial properties, qualities and applications is a key task of design.

For this assignment, students inquire into the material and explore how its material properties and qualities can be designed and experienced. In particular, students explore the materials in the design of experiences of "care", with attention to human/material relationships as well as social interactions. Beyond the material itself, they are encouraged to think critically and to elaborate on the complexity of the idea of "care".

The assignment lasts Oct 16-25. There are 2 tasks in the assignment, one focused on process and the other on a material design proposal. There is also a filed trip to Innventia, tutorials and a show-&-tell. The reading circle for the assignment discusses these texts:

• Edvardsson, D. (2009) Balancing between being a person and being a patient, International Journal of Nursing Studies 46, pp. 4-11.
• Avila, M. (2012) Devices: On hospitality and hostility in design. PhD dissertation, HDK Gothenburg University, pp. 81-92 (full text at www.martinavila.com).

Assignment 2 is a continuation of Assignment 1, taking inspiration by ‘commercial’ processes from business and innovation studies. The consultancy McKinsey proposes the 3 C’s – Customer, Competitor and Company. Students consider and to communicate the value(s) of their proposal in relation to potential customers/users, competitors, public/private organizations.

In the process, students may think outside the box – beyond assumptions of current markets, cost structures, as Hamel and Prahalad argue in the assigned reading. In the class lecture, Clive van Heerden and Jack Mama spoke about how design imagination, visualization and provocation can also create new markets and value(s). A variety of strategic design tools have been developed for identifying and communicating potential product value(s).

This is a short assignment lasting Oct 28-31. There are two tasks in the assignment, one focused on process and the strategic tools, the other focused on further developing Assignment 1 as a product or value proposition. The reading circle discusses these:

• Hamel, G. and Prahalad, C.K. (1991) Corporate Imagination and Expeditionary Marketing, Harvard Business Review, excerpts pp. 3-6.
• Selection of strategic design tools: ‘futures wheel’ from Glenn, J. and Gordon, T. (2003) Futures Research Methodology 2.0. Washington, DC: AC/UNU Millennium; ‘positioning maps’ from IIT Institute of Design ID514 Design Planning, Keeley, L. Framework Pack, Fall 2010; ‘differential tool’ and ‘social/ environmental assessment’, from Tukker, T. and Tischner, U. (2006) New Business for Old Europe, Sheffield, UK: Greenleaf.

Links to student design processes and proposals

	Fanny Carlsson "What if a textile material could control the climate inside through breathing/ventilating?" more...
	Ela Celary "Fabric takes care of our skin... How does it look like, skin for objects?"  more...
	Nelson Hardie "What if 'activating' the textile, it would harden to supporting the safely of a person?" more...
	Tove Johnson "How to bring the nature/relationship to nurture inside and be positively affected by the colored material?" more...
	Jenny Markstedt "Depending on what you protect and where this takes place, the word protection has different meanings." more...
	Lorenzo Polo "To NOT CARE: How a negative like stress could leads to something positive?" more...
	Anna Clara Rendahl "What if we could capture and materialize moments of care?" more...
	Maren Skyrudsmoen "With these structures, there is new possibilities when it comes to flexibility and movement... what if a blanket for patients?" more...
	Frida Åberg "What if data is wirelessly connected to the hospital’s medical equipment and today’s patient garment are comfortable clothes?" more...

1st Design Processes reading circle

From today's discussion in the reading circle, we focused on these topics: Openness Multiplicity Placeholder Problem solving Language of Communication The paper concept model is a proposition of a visualization of a design process based on the elements above. In todays discussion we agreed on that it's important to have some kind of idea/problem/brief/goal to work towards but that the process is iterative rather than linear. The blank paper symbolizes the starting point of a design project. The stripes symbolizes the further exploration of the project. The ideas, factors and decisions made take form of the folding, attachment and also subtraction of these stripes. Group members: Nelson Hardie Fanny Carlsson Maren Skyrudsmoen This discussion was part of the reading circle discussing the text: A.Telier, Design Things, Boston: MIT Press, 2011, pp. 15-21.

Today's discussion on Design Methods generated this visualization representing what we found to be most important during a design process. Be open for change. Keep structure in the creative disorder. A method could be anything. Communicate and share your process. Group members: Ela Celary Anna Clara Rendahl Frida Åberg Lorenzo Polo Jenny Markstedt This discussion was part of the reading circle discussing the text: John Chris Jones, Design Methods, 2nd edition, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1992, pp. xxv-xxix.

About the course

Design Processes IDM108 2013
Industrial Design, Konstfack

In this course, students explore ways to conduct design processes. The design field is always expanding – in addition to established settings in industry, industrial designers today work in a wide range of contexts, with many experts, stakeholders and users. Such complex settings of design work may require additional perspectives and methods. In this course, we will explore different ways of thinking about and working in the expanded field of design. From a basis in material and ‘designerly’ processes, the aim is to develop students’ experience with and knowledge of different perspectives and methods. Through trying out different perspectives and methods, the goal is that students will be better able to articulate their design processes, method(s) and role(s) as designers. After the course, students should have a wider and deeper repertoire, or toolkit, of approaches to choose from when creating a relevant design process. The course unfolds as a sequence of perspective that build on one another:
• Material
• Commercial
• Service

Teacher
Ramia Mazé, ramia.maze@konstfack.se

Students
Ela Celary
Nelson Hardie
Tove Johnson
Fanny Karlsson
Jenny Markstedt
Lorenzo Polo
Anna Clara Rendahl
Maren Skyrudsmoen
Frida Åberg

Guest teachers
Jenny Althoff, Konstfack
Brendon Clark, Interactive Institute Swedish ICT
Kajsa Davidsson, Interactive Institute Swedish ICT
Mikael Lindström and personnel from Innventia
Jack Mama and Clive van Heerden, Electrolux
Others to be announced

Guest critics
Martin Avila, Konstfack
Niklas Billström, Konstfack
Magnus Lindförs, Konstfack
Bo Westerlund, Konstfack (examinor)

The course plan and coursework more...

The course schedule more...