Who’s in charge? End-users challenge graphic designers’ intuition through visual verbal co-design

Abstract

This paper aims to understand how co-design influences the design process, by presenting a case study where graphic designers and end-users codesigned asthma information. Three co-design activities are presented, as part of a larger project, revealing insights for the next generation of graphic designers. The co-design activities built a trusting, enjoyable environment, while posing the question are designers still in charge of the process? A visual verbal game dissolved participant status barriers, a persona scenario activity uncovered the real brief and a mix and match card game suspended participant politics. The findings suggest that co-designing with end-users, challenges graphic designers' use of intuition, as new ways of categorizing asthma information material were revealed that previous design-led processes had overlooked. This study confirms the rich contribution of end-users' creativity, when designers relinquish creative control, ultimately revealing co-design as a valuable approach for graphic designers engaging in bottom-up design processes.

How graphic designers rely on intuition as an ephemeral facility to support their creative design process

“…This situation might not change until graphic designers overcome the 'fear that sharing will "give away" some perceived competitive edge' (Frascara, 2004, p. 60). In response, Taffe (2017) found that co-designing with end users can yield more creative solutions if graphic designers relinquish creative control while still relying firmly on their intuition during the creative process.…”

Artificial intelligence in design education: evaluating ChatGPT as a virtual colleague for post-graduate course development

“…It is easy to use and its limitations in practical usage, for the design assignment tasks that it was set, appear to be more focussed on its data set and training. However, such limitations may also be reflective of the difficulty of aligning the intangible nature of some of the more conceptual and creative aspects of many design practices (Heller 2019), for example, intuition (Taffe 2017), as well as in design’s inherent interdisciplinarity (Harland 2015), with the more empirical principles of computer science based AI. Such limitations may also be partially attributable to the relative nascency of academic rigour in some of those design disciplines, such as graphic design (Corazzo et al 2019), which in turn may cast limitations on the data that ChatGPT is able to draw on.…”

A user-centred design framework for disaster risk visualisation

“…Surveys, questionnaires, focus groups and interviews are all useful to gain feedback on prototypes, as well as on the specific design elements. Mixing and matching cards with different design elements and their potential meanings could elicit feedback on risk interpretations [129]. An expert review of the prototypes could reveal hitherto hidden aspects [130].…”