Anticipating Connectivity in (UX) Design Practices: Reframing Challenges by Introducing Theory Cards

Kjærsgaard, Mette Gislev; Mosleh, Wafa Said; Buur, Jacob; Sorenson, Jessica

doi:10.1111/epic.12065

Cited by 3 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…These changes infiltrate the products themselves, their use and implementation, design processes, organizational cultures and structures, and the human-human and human-object relations implicated at all of these levels. In an earlier paper (Kjaersgaard et al 2021), we describe these findings and our first design research experiment aimed at solving some of the issues we identified. By the end of that experiment, we had come to the conclusion that what design practitioners needed most, in order to remain effective and relevant in a fast-changing field, was fresh perspectives.…”

Section: From Perspectives To Ways Of Seeingmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…In 2020, some of our collaborators contacted us, feeling that they had exhausted their userresearch methods without drawing forth particularly new or relevant insights. To investigate this frustration, we initiated the project New Challenges in Interaction Design, which has involved several stages of studying practitioners and the emerging issues they face in their everyday work (Kjaersgaard et al 2021).…”

Section: From Perspectives To Ways Of Seeingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our first design research experiment was to develop Theory Cards [Figure 2] to explore how theoretical concepts might instigate perspective shifts, to meet these new challenges posed by digital connectivity (see Kjaersgaard et al 2021). The Theory Cards effectively communicated unfamiliar theoretical ideas from design anthropology in a playful context familiar to the UX practitioners and industry professionals we were working with, adding a new layer to the insights we had drawn from the material in the previous analysis workshop.…”

Section: Theory Cards As a Set Of Lensesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With the ambition of meeting practitioners in the space between our academic practice of epistemological production and their design practice of material production, we endeavored to make theory more tangible, literally -with the aim of avoiding the knowledgetransfer problem we had previously encountered. Building on a long tradition of materiality in design (e.g., Brandt & Messeter 2004;Buur & Sitorus 2007) and our more recent experiences cultivating engagement through data physicalizations (Buur et al 2021), we sought to bring anthropological ways of knowing to bear on the design process, by translating the analytical power of theory into material interactions.…”

Section: Materializing Meaning-makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Theory Instruments as Tangible Ways of Knowing

Sorenson

Kjærsgaard

Buur

et al. 2022

Ethnographic Praxis

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While ethnographers and the data they produce already play a role in affecting industry practices, there is potential to integrate anthropological ways of seeing and knowing into a shared transdisciplinary design praxis. In a series of design research experiments, we have taken a pragmatic and playful approach to physicalizing theory. The result is a set of ‘Theory Instruments’ that transform theory into tangible interaction. Theory Instruments scaffold knowledge production by encouraging new ways of seeing organizations, products, users, and the relations between them. We present two of these instruments, Actor‐Network Rings and Reciprocity Balance, through a case study with a design team at a health product company that wished to generate new design concepts from field material. Theory Instruments helped bridge the gap between the epistemic modes of knowing employed by ethnography practitioners and the technical and tacit modes of knowing familiar to design practitioners. This new mode of collaboration helped them to cross worlds, cultivating a more resilient, transdisciplinary praxis.

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Section: From Perspectives To Ways Of Seeingmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: From Perspectives To Ways Of Seeingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theory Cards As a Set Of Lensesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Materializing Meaning-makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Theory Instruments as Tangible Ways of Knowing

Sorenson

Kjærsgaard

Buur

et al. 2022

Ethnographic Praxis

Self Cite

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“…With increasing digitalization, design researchers and designers in the industry are struggling to take into account the effects that interactive products have on users and their lives. In a study of UX practices in manufacturing companies, Kjaersgaard et al (2021) argue that this is not simply a problem of finding better methods; rather, it is a more fundamental question of theoretical perspectives. To help practitioners gain broader perspectives, we have started experimenting with theory instruments-tangible objects that work as conversation starters to challenge the taken-for-granted assumptions about people and technologies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Actor-Network Theory Instrument for Design Practitioners

Agca,

Buur

2023

The International Journal of Designed Objects

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In this paper, we explore a novel idea of theory instruments: tangible artifacts that encourage participatory design practitioners in the industry to reflect on interactions with technological devices in the light of a particular theory. Our Actor-Network Rings instrument is based on Actor-Network Theory as this is one way to challenge taken-for-granted assumptions about what effects digitalization have on product users and their lives. The instrument consists of wooden rings, wooden balls, clothespins, and magnets. By adding wooden clothespins as actors and plastic ones as actants on wooden network rings, upholding a wooden ball becomes visible and even tangible as a program of action. Shifting or removing clothespins visualizes concepts of imaginary substitution and delegation. We analyze two cases of how designers and design researchers in companies use the instrument to investigate dilemmas of people and technology. With transcripts from video documentation and hand-drawn visualizations, we show that the instrument elicits broader insights into the dilemmas and even opens ideas for future scenarios. We argue that there is a potential for developing such theory instruments that, in a playful manner, offer fundamental theory perspectives to inform understandings of digitalization.

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