Combining the Digital and the Analog: Exploring Unfamiliar Problem Domains through Video Blogs and Role-Playing in Industrial Design Education

2017-06-29
Eren, Gizem Hediye
Korkut, Fatma
When working on familiar problem domains, designers can rely on their past experience and knowledge. Unfamiliar problem domains, on the other hand, may require guided access to users and the use environment. In design education, faced with an unfamiliar problem domain, design students as novice designers usually conduct exploratory design research in order to form a sufficient background about the user group and the usage context. There are various tools and methods for conducting exploratory research. However, when direct access to users is challenging and requires advanced research skills, the students need to be provided with alternative approaches and tools. This paper introduces video blogs (VLOGs), role-playing and storyboarding as exploratory research tools that can be used in such cases. The paper discusses the use of these tools in the case of a senior year industrial design studio project where students work on an unfamiliar problem domain for developing a walking support for people with cerebral palsy. Based on the project documentation, interviews conducted with tutors, and the focus group with the students, the paper discusses the challenges faced by the students concerning accessing the use environment and the users with cerebral palsy, and the strategies they developed to cope with these challenges. The case indicates that combining digital and analog tools VLOGs, role-playing and storyboarding can be used as alternative ways of conducting exploratory design research in unfamiliar problem domains for generating initial design ideas, and that this approach can play an important role in unfamiliar problem domains for substituting direct observation of, or direct contact with, hard-to-access users. Video blogs. Role-playing. Storyboarding. Unfamiliar problem domains. Exploratory design research. Industrial design education.
Combining the Digital and the Analog: Exploring Unfamiliar Problem Domains through Video Blogs and Role-Playing in Industrial Design Education, LearnXDesign 2017, 27 - 29 Haziran 2017

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Citation Formats
G. H. Eren and F. Korkut, “Combining the Digital and the Analog: Exploring Unfamiliar Problem Domains through Video Blogs and Role-Playing in Industrial Design Education,” presented at the Combining the Digital and the Analog: Exploring Unfamiliar Problem Domains through Video Blogs and Role-Playing in Industrial Design Education, LearnXDesign 2017, 27 - 29 Haziran 2017, 2017, Accessed: 00, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/82661.