It is a fact that design research, as a way of interpreting and producing knowledge on the reality, has enhanced, in the last decades, by applying a certain range of tools and practices (from users studies to prototyping from evaluating to redesigning) that currently are recognised under the umbrella of co-design. Forcing the vision, co-design is today understood and applied as the transversal approach to lead User Centred Design research into different design domains of application (from user driven projects conducted by design firms to open innovation projects leaded by companies that want to collaborate with their users in innovation generation) . As a consequence a general misunderstanding is emerging between the notion of co-design and that of User Centred Design (UCD) (Norman and Draper, 1986) such as any difference would exist between them. Few works (Cautela, Rizzo, Zurlo, 2009; Marti and Bannon, 2009) attempt to confront these two areas of knowledge: the present one discusses the differences between them starting from the hypothesis that: UCD is a precise design method whose application conducts designers to develop usable design solutions for end users; co-design, as it is currently described in many design research contributions, is a set of creative techniques whose aim is to inspire the design process. Creative exercises are usually applied to enhance idea generation and concept design, they are characterised for the presence of non-designers (end users but not only) as participants and leaded by designers.
Co-design versus User Centred Design: Framing the differences
RIZZO, FRANCESCA
2010
Abstract
It is a fact that design research, as a way of interpreting and producing knowledge on the reality, has enhanced, in the last decades, by applying a certain range of tools and practices (from users studies to prototyping from evaluating to redesigning) that currently are recognised under the umbrella of co-design. Forcing the vision, co-design is today understood and applied as the transversal approach to lead User Centred Design research into different design domains of application (from user driven projects conducted by design firms to open innovation projects leaded by companies that want to collaborate with their users in innovation generation) . As a consequence a general misunderstanding is emerging between the notion of co-design and that of User Centred Design (UCD) (Norman and Draper, 1986) such as any difference would exist between them. Few works (Cautela, Rizzo, Zurlo, 2009; Marti and Bannon, 2009) attempt to confront these two areas of knowledge: the present one discusses the differences between them starting from the hypothesis that: UCD is a precise design method whose application conducts designers to develop usable design solutions for end users; co-design, as it is currently described in many design research contributions, is a set of creative techniques whose aim is to inspire the design process. Creative exercises are usually applied to enhance idea generation and concept design, they are characterised for the presence of non-designers (end users but not only) as participants and leaded by designers.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
