Multi-person social network position analysis in co-design projects through digital platforms

Abstract

Designers are increasingly focusing not only on artefacts and individual users, but also on larger groups of users, localities, territories, local and online communities, and platforms and initiatives that connect them. The goal of this article is to propose Social Network Analysis as a first-person research method in design that enables designers to understand their position and role within the social networks they design with and for. The first-person perspective is both individual and contextualised in a larger complex social system. This article proposes the Multi-Person Social Network Position Analysis as a methodology for identifying the position in time, activities and social network of interactions over digital platforms as a way for integrating the first-person perspective of a designer, her team (second-person) and community (third-person). This methodology adopts a remote data acquisition approach 1) for uncovering the social dimension and structure of a project, of its designing and of the role and position of designers, 2) for engaging with remote and distributed communities, 3) for understanding the social impact of projects. Furthermore, the article elaborates 4) a research protocol and 5) reflections on the role and limitations of the methodology and of digital platforms as data sources.