Experience-Centered Design Designers, Users, and Communities in Dialogue

Copyright �� 2010 by Morgan & Claypool All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means���electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. Experience-Centered Design: Designers, Users, and Communities in Dialogue Peter Wright and John McCarthy www.morganclaypool.com ISBN: 9781608450442 paperback ISBN: 9781608450459 ebook DOI 10.2200/S00229ED1V01Y201003HCI009 A Publication in the Morgan & Claypool Publishers series SYNTHESIS LECTURES ON HUMAN-CENTERED INFORMATICS Lecture #9 Series Editor: John M. Carroll, Penn State University Series ISSN Synthesis Lectures on Human-Centered Informatics Print 1946-7680 Electronic 1946-7699

Synthesis Lectures on Human-Centered Informatics Editor John M. Carroll, Penn State University Human-Centered Informatics (HCI) is the intersection of the cultural, the social, the cognitive, and the aesthetic with computing and information technology. It encompasses a huge range of issues, theories, technologies, designs, tools, environments and human experiences in knowledge work, recreation and leisure activity, teaching and learning, and the potpourri of everyday life.The series will publish state-of-the-art syntheses, case studies, and tutorials in key areas. It will share the focus of leading international conferences in HCI. Experience-Centered Design: Designers, Users, and Communities in Dialogue Peter Wright and John McCarthy 2010 Experience Design: Technology for All the Right Reasons Marc Hassenzahl 2010 Designing and Evaluating Usable Technology in Industrial Research: Three Case Studies Clare-Marie Karat and John Karat 2010 Interacting with Information Ann Blandford and Simon Attfield 2010 Designing for User Engagement: Aesthetic and Attractive User Interfaces Alistair Sutcliffe 2009 Context-Aware Mobile Computing: Affordances of Space, Social Awareness, and Social Influence Geri Gay 2009 Studies of Work and the Workplace in HCI: Concepts and Techniques Graham Button and Wes Sharrock 2009

iv Semiotic Engineering Methods for Scientific Research in HCI Clarisse Sieckenius de Souza and Carla Faria Leit��o 2009 Common Ground in Electronically Mediated Conversation Andrew Monk 2008

Experience-Centered Design Designers, Users, and Communities in Dialogue Peter Wright Newcastle University John McCarthy University College Cork SYNTHESIS LECTURES ON HUMAN-CENTERED INFORMATICS #9 M &C cLaypool Morgan publishers &

ABSTRACT Experience-centered design, experience-based design, experience design, designing for experience, user experience design. All of these terms have emerged and gained acceptance in the Human- Computer Interaction (HCI) and Interaction Design relatively recently. In this book, we set out our understanding of experience-centered design as a humanistic approach to designing digital technologies and media that enhance lived experience. The book is divided into three sections. In Section 1, we outline the historical origins and basic concepts that led into and flow out from our understanding of experience as the heart of people���s interactions with digital technology. In Section 2, we describe three examples of experience-centered projects and use them to illustrate and explain our dialogical approach. In Section 3, we recapitulate some of the main ideas and themes of the book and discuss the potential of experience-centered design to continue the humanist agenda by giving a voice to those who might otherwise be excluded from design and by creating opportunities for people to enrich their lived experience with- and through- technology. KEYWORDS experience-centered design, user experience, experiential inquiry, designer perspective, dialogical design,humanism,values,qualitative research,design research,empathy,nar- rative

vii Contents Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xiii Photo Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv Part I What is Experience-Centered Design? . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 How Did We Get Here? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.2 The Roots of Experience-Centered Design in HCI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.2.1 Understanding Users and the Use Context 5 1.2.2 From Cognition to Interpretation 6 1.2.3 Participatory Design 7 1.3 Re-Asserting the Humanist Agenda in Experience-Centered Design . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 2 Some Key Ideas Behind Experience-Centered Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 2.1 The Seeds of an Experience-Centered Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 2.2 Experience-Centered Design���s Association with Dewey���s Pragmatism . . . . . . . . . . .12 2.3 Technology as Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 2.3.1 Life as Lived and Felt 13 2.3.2 Connection with the World and Reflection on the World 15 2.3.3 Experiential Inquiry 16 2.3.4 Continuity and Anticipation 18 2.3.5 Empathy and the Social Nature of Experience 19 2.3.6 People and Things as Centers of Value in Dialogue 21 2.3.7 Self, Agency, and Creativity in the Co-Construction of Experience 21 2.4 Doing Experience-Centered Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

viii Part II Doing Experience-Centered Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 3 Making Sense of Experience in Experience-Centered Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 3.1 What���s in a Story? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 3.2 Collecting and Analyzing Stories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 3.3 Using Stories in Experience-Centered Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 3.3.1 Scenarios, Personas, and Pastiche 33 3.3.2 Drama and Role-Play 34 3.3.3 Participative Approaches 35 3.4 Stories and Dialogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 4 Experience-Centered Design as Dialogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 4.1 Stories in Dialogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 4.2 Dialogue in Experience-Centered Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 4.3 Digital Jewellery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 4.4 The Prayer Companion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 4.5 Silence of the Lands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 5 What do We Mean by Dialogue? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 5.1 Creativity and Openness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 5.2 Responsiveness: Relationship Between Designers and Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 5.3 Listening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 5.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Part III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 6 Valuing Experience-Centered Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 6.1 Valuing the Whole Person Behind the ���User��� . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 6.2 Valuing the Dialogical Nature of Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 6.2.1 Theory and Dialogical Design 66 6.2.2 Precedent and Dialogical Design 67 6.3 Engaging with Participants in Dialogical Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

CONTENTS ix 6.3.1 A Variety of Forms of Engagement 69 6.3.2 Empathy and Experience 70 7 Where Do We Go from Here? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71 7.1 Some Personal Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 7.2 Designing Things that Matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 7.2.1 Continuity, Cumulation, and Transformation 74 7.2.2 An Ecology of Things 75 7.2.3 Trajectories and Values 75 7.3 Experience, Technology, and Democracy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76 7.3.1 The Story of Aimee Mullins 77 7.3.2 The Story of Amy Tenderich 78 7.3.3 Questions for the Experience-Centered Designer 79 7.4 Conclusion: Experience-Centered Design and the Humanist Agenda . . . . . . . . . . .80 A Doing Research in Experience-Centered Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 A.1 Approaches and Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 A.2 Research Topics and Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 A.3 Research for Experience-Centered Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 A.4 Research Through Experience-Centered Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 A.5 Research into or about Experience-Centered Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 A.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97 Authors��� Biographies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

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Acknowledgments Much of the background research for this book was carried out while Peter was on sabbatical from the Art and Design Research Institute at Sheffield Hallam University, UK, and John was on sabbatical from the Department of Applied Psychology, University College Cork, Ireland. Many thanks to our respective colleagues at these institutions for their support and encouragement. Many thanks also to Steve Howard and his colleagues at the Interaction Design Group, Department of Information Systems, University of Melbourne Australia, who hosted part of Peter���s sabbatical, and to colleagues at Aarhus University for helpful discussions about the idea of experience-centered design. We would like to thank the numerous people who asked us how our ideas in Technology as Experience could be made practically useful. We hope some of them will find answers in this book. We would also like to thank many people who in convivial conversations over the years have helped us to develop and refine our ideas about experience-centered design. We would especially like to thank Mark Blythe, Jayne Wallace, Bill Gaver, Simon Bowen, Elisa Giaccardi, and Patrick Olivier for discussions and for feedback on drafts of this manuscript. Some of the ideas and research developed in this book were supported by the ESRC Landscapes of Cross Generational Engagement Project RES-352-25-0030, and the NIHR, CLAHRC-South Yorkshire, User-Centred Healthcare Design Project. Our families suffered while we were working on this book, so many thanks to Janet, Megan, Maddie, and Mary for their patience and support once again. Peter Wright and John McCarthy March 2010

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Preface Experience-centered design, experience-based design, experience design, designing for ex- perience, user experience design. All of these terms have emerged and gained acceptance in the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Interaction Design relatively recently. This interest in experience is associated with technological developments like portables, wearables, ambients, Web 2.0,locative media,and the confluence of information and communication technologies,and of com- puting, media, and entertainment. It is also associated with cultural changes that are often summed up in phrases like ���out of the workplace, into the home���. But this underplays the breadth and depth of the socio-technical changes that we are living through. In this book, we further develop a position on experience-centered design that was set out in Technology as Experience (McCarthy and Wright, 2004). In that book, we set out some conceptual foundations concerning the nature of human experience and its mediation by technology. In this book, we respond to the interest there has been in that book and to a number of discussions we have had about how to make those conceptual foundations more meaningful in design. A number of other books in this series are also interested in exploring how aspects of human experience relate to design. Sutcliffe (2009), for example, takes a cognitive perspective to expand the traditional concept of usability to include aesthetics, fun, and excitement. In a similar vein, Hassenzhal, M. (2010) also sees experience as a goal for design and, taking a more experimental approach,explores ways of manipulating experiences by analyzing,dissecting,and categorizing them. Having worked in experimental psychology and cognitive science for many years, especially in the area of how human factors research can inform design,and having explored the value and limits of experimental methods, both of us feel there is a lot to be gained from taking a more interpretive and qualitative approach to experience-centered design.In addition,we feel that when design focuses too narrowly on experimental method as an approach to knowing the user and understanding experience, it runs the risk of treating people as objects of research rather than as participants in design. As a consequence of the position set out in Technology as Experience, we are committed to exploring approaches that engage users as participants in the design process, with a view to understanding relationships between users and designers in experience-centered design. This dialogical approach gives weight to both designer and user as differently placed centers of value in the process of design. It continues a humanist tradition in HCI, going back as far as Engelbert, Bush, and Nelson, which focuses on enriching aspects of our humanity through attending to values of agency, democracy, equality, and choice. In this book, we set out our understanding of experience-centered design in three steps. In Part 1, we outline the historical origins and basic concepts that led into and flow from Technology as Experience.In Part 2,we describe three examples of experience-centered design projects and use them

xiv PREFACE to illustrate and explain our dialogical approach. In Part 3, we recapitulate some of the main ideas and themes that are developed through the book. We also discuss the potential of a participatory approach to experience-centered design to continue the humanist vision of HCI. We see this book as being of interest to a range of people in and around HCI, Media, and Interaction Design,from final year undergraduates and postgraduates to researchers and practitioners trying to get a handle on experience-centered design.The book is presented as three sections and an appendix. These could be delivered as a series of four independent but related, high-level (Masters, PhD) master-classes or half-day workshops. Each is concerned with a salient aspect of experience- centered design that would benefit from some clarification at this stage, including valuing the whole person, the dialogical nature of design, engaging with participants, designing things that matter, how to do research for experience-centered design. It is not a conventional textbook: it was not our aim to be comprehensive in every area and we have written from our own particular perspective on experience-centered design. We have however tried to provide references, resources, and pointers throughout to help those who need to take these issues further or explore alternative perspectives. Peter Wright and John McCarthy March 2010

Photo Credits Photo in Figure 4.1 Photo courtesy of Jayne Wallace, Culture Lab, Newcastle University Photo in Figure 4.2 Photo courtesy of Jayne Wallace, Culture Lab, Newcastle University Photo in Figure 4.3 Photo courtesy of the Interaction Research Group, Goldsmiths University of London Photo in Figure 4.4 Photo courtesy Larry Harwood, University of Colorado at Boulder Photo in Figure 4.5 Photo courtesy Jane Meyers, University of Colorado at Boulder