Promoting design probes in interior design and in the user-centred analysis of a space in the context of Finnish higher education

Abstract

Probing is a new, playful co-design method that enables future users to participate in a design process in variant design contexts. This article is based on a case study of applying and developing the probing method as a part of studies of interior design in higher education in craft and design. The article reports probing processes of the university-level students (N=72), training to become textile teachers, and their reflections on the method. The data on the case were collected during two interior design courses held in a single institution in 2014 and 2015. The results outline the students' processes from the point of view of participation, spaces chosen as well as their reflections. After the students experienced the probing process, they suggested ideas for its application in teaching design in different educational degrees as well as applications in other contexts.

Interactive textiles

“…In an advanced studies five-credit course, which was supervised by the author working as a University Lecturer in Craft Studies, the contents included user-centred design for interiors and the aims of user-centred design issues connected with interior design and textiles. In the first nine-week phase of the course, each student applied a probing process to an interior to learn usercentred analysis as a co-design practice (for details, see Kärnä-Behm, 2016). In spring 2018, when the data were collected, there were 16 students in the course.…”