The expansion of the design object

Frederick van Amstel http://fredvanamstel.com

Architecture and Design SchoolDigital Design

PUCPR

Design is a social activity

•Design is not only a product

•Design is a professional activity

•Design has a historical tradition

• Traditions change

•Design transforms and creates objects, not necessarily physical objects

What is the object of design?

What is she designing?

What is him designing?

What is that the designer cocreates with the user?

Why so many ways of representing the object?

Design object is something that is or will be used by another activity.

Hence design being social activity.

Social activity unfold in networks

Design activity

Cooking activity

SurgeryLaw-

making

Design education

Professional designers Utensils

WorkflowNorm

as técn

icas

The activity changes when its object expands.

Yrjö Engeström

Contemporary expansion

Design ThinkerDesign Doer

ProcessProducts

Amateurdesigners

Users

Expansion history

Object: construction materials (1800 - 1940)

Object: complex entity (1930 - present)

(Van Amstel, 2015)

Object: emergent performance (1990 - present)

The first Bauhaus curriculum put emphasis over mastering construction material (1922)

Material innovation enabled new forms and shapes

The second Bauhaus curriculum included Science, town planning and social services (1932)

Ülm curriculum emphasized interdisciplinarity, information and knowledge (1951)

Brasilia: a city designed by multidisciplinary experts (1956)

The Anglepoise is a simple yet complex design (1927)

Juicy Salif squeezer refuses being a product and appeal to emotions (1990)

The Ideo shopping cart (1998) was designed based on the observed experience of US shoppers

Smell+ is a blind date app that connects people through body smells (2009)

Carneggie Mellon University new design curriculum (2014)

Emergent performance

• Performance is a process not a product

• Performance is different every time it repeats

• Performance is measurable

• Performance cannot be controlled since it is emergent

• Performance examples: interaction, experience, emotion, service, business

Use value X Exchange value

• Value is not money

• Exchange value is often measured with money

•Use value is sometimes measured with usability metrics (efficacy, efficiency, satisfaction)

•Use value is related to the usefulness, utility and materiality of something

Industrial economy

• Exchange value generation from functionality

•Use value generation from object characteristics

• Product Design

•Graphic Design

• Interior Design object

the object has its own value

Experience economy

• Exchange value generation from branding

•Use value generation from object’s role in context

•User Experience Design

• Interaction Design

• Service Design

the object amplifies the value of something else

object

Transforming products into services bridges the gap between company and market

Value co-creation at the boundaries of an organization(Amstel, 2015)

Producer

Negotiation for exchange value

Cocreator

Client

Negotiation for use value

Apple for example offers current best integration across multiple products

Ikea furniture I assembled myself in the place I lived in the Netherlands. I had an emotional bond to them.

Value Proposition Canvas: value is created by reducing pains and increasing gains, i.e., through experience

Realtime feedback of fuel consumption in Fiat cars tries to influence the driver (cocreate an experience)

Contemporary expansion

Design ThinkerDesign Doer

ProcessProducts

Amateurdesigners

Users

Today’s design object

• Includes the user behavior, as if it could be designed as part of the product

• Embed many rules and a division of labor

• Resists design through diversion, escalating complexity,

• Is often shared and disputed among multiple activities (since people behavior is at play)

Thanks!Frederick van Amstel

http://fredvanamstel.comArchitecture and Design School

Digital Design PUCPR