From the Creation of Value to the Connections of Worth

From the Creation of Value to the Connections of Worth Gilbert Cockton Research Chair, Human-Computer Interaction School of Computing and Technology, University of Sunderland NESTA Fellow 2005-2007

Design as the Creation of Value? • In Autumn 2005, I began a NESTA fellowship on value-centred design • exploring if and how design as the creation of value could make sense. When I talk about design, I try not to mention the “d” word anymore. I try to talk about value.

Expanding Scope of Designing, V1

Expanding Scope of Designing, V2 • Style ValueFunction  Interaction   Experience  • Design as connecting, not just creating Artefacts People

Scope and Structure • This expanding scope of designing has an internal structure • First focus: artefacts (products, services, systems) • Next focus: connecting stuff with people • Third focus: intended worth (balance of costs and benefits) • History preserving structure • John Heskett, layers in design history

Design as the enabling of worth • Not enough for designing to create value • Even if value can be ‘created’ (rather than ‘added to’, ‘designed for’, etc.) • Value is for people, not in things (value > price) • Value focus emphasises benefits but ignores costs • price: cost of purchase and ownership • effort: physical/mental costs of usage, not only of operation/consumption, but of integration into existing product-service ecosystems

Load, Aim, Fire • Innovation follows invention ??? aim, load, fire (‘needs-first’ design) !!! load, fire, aim (‘thing-first’ design) • Increasingly explicit commitment to associational designing •    • connecting (Mok, RSA) • bridging, translating (Marzano) • linking (Cox report)

Find the Structure in Heskett Design outcomes “result from … decisions … Choice implies alternatives, in how ends can be achieved, and for whose advantage. … design is not only about initial decision or concepts by designers, but also about how these are implemented and by what means we can evaluate their effect or benefit” (Heskett 2002, pp. 5-6)

Connecting Means to Ends and More Evaluation Beneficiary Worth achieved? achievable? value costs measures Means Ends association

Heskett’s Buried Treasure • provides a basis for systematic derivation of meta-principles for designing • meta-principles too general for immediate use • need to be refined for specific project contexts • systematic derivation • sketchy presentation!

Commitment Designing requires commitment to delivering specific ends. Such ends need to be stated as design purpose, and committed to until a completed design meets this specific purpose, or a initial position on design purpose is replaced by a more appropriate one. Commitment is judged by the extent to which a project team remains focused on design purpose throughout development. Beneficiary Worth value costs Means Ends association

Receptiveness ideas can come from anywhere(Richard Banks, MSRC) Designing requires receptiveness in the consideration of alternative means and chosen ends. Receptiveness is judged relative to possible sources of inspiration and insight, including field evidence, design history, contemporary design critiques, trends in society, culture and the economy, and theoretical understandings of design, technology and people. trends past present theory field research Means Ends precedent

Expressiveness Designing requires expressiveness in communicating alternative means, chosen ends, and the associations between means and ends. Expressiveness is judged by the extent to which effective, appropriate and confident decisions can be based on well enough developed specifications and communication of the human and design elements within a development process. costs measures Means Ends association

Inclusiveness Designing requires inclusiveness for those who are beneficiaries in the development process and after project completion. Inclusiveness is judged relative to rights and responsibilities in the development process (project team, sponsors) and the potential impact of fielded designs in the world (end-users, colleagues, consumers, citizens). Beneficiary Worth value costs Means Ends association

Credibility Evaluation Beneficiary Worth Designing requires credibility in the feasibility of alternative means, groundedness of chosen ends, and plausibility of associations between means and ends. Credibility is judged relative to the epistemic values chosen by a project team, and accepted by stakeholders. achievable? value Means Ends association

Improvability Designing requires improvability for all its aspects, i.e., its choices of beneficiaries, means and purpose, its quality of expression, its receptiveness, and its focus on design purpose. Improvability is judged relative to three subprinciples of evaluability, understandability and responsiveness. Evaluation Beneficiary Worth achieved? achievable? costs value measures Means Ends association

Six Meta-Principles for Designing • Commitment • Receptiveness • Expressiveness • Inclusiveness • Credibility • Improvability

Worth-Centred Development (WCD) • Development = research + design + evaluation • meta-principles guide practice framework • co-ordinated design approaches • (very) brief examples per principle • modifications to existing models and representations from interaction design, consumer psychology and related design disciplines • illustrative rather than instructive • demonstrates basis for systematic approaches based on worth-centred meta-principles for designing as connecting

Physical comfort Healthy plants and pets Caring for planet Healthy Budget Dry home In control of usage and costs, no excess, unpredictable or unaffordable expenditure Environmental conscience eased by manageable carbon offset Comfortable room temperatures Flexible Clear Informative Rooms Programming Module Local & Remote Room/Home Override Predictive Cost & Usage Module Carbon footprint information Controllable heat outlets and supply Internal and external sensors Remote access (mobile phone, web, ITV) Broadband links Predictive algorithms Home alarm and sensors Physical Discomfort Damp Home Financial Hardship Hypothermia, dead plants & pets Burst Pipes Global Warming Commitment and Worth Maps

Receptiveness and Interdependencies • Elias, Processual/Figurative Sociology • Social contexts of individuals are complex ‘figurations’ • Kin, Kind, Institutions • Weber/Habermas: Value/Worth Spheres • Shape individual motivations of existence, relatedness and growth (Herzberg) • Map out sources of individual and collective worth

Expressiveness and Worth Boards • Multimedia artefacts • Beyond image and style of mood boards

User Experience Frames feelings beliefs systemusage systemresponse actions in the world Credibility and UEFs features and qualities outcomes

User Experience Frames can be formed for each included stakeholder Balance of worth for each stakeholder can be expressed and compared Interdependencies can be used for stakeholder identification Personas can express stakeholder worth Can include general public, planet and project team as stakeholders Inclusiveness and UEFs

Element Measurement Strategies Measures, targets and instruments for each worth map element, including self-instrumentation Basis for evaluability Worth processing systems expressed in worth maps, basis for understandability Receptiveness is the basis for responsiveness Improvability and EMSs

Wrapping Up • Not a return to design methods of 1960s and 1970s • not tied to scientific approaches • project teams must interpret meta-principles and select/tailor approaches • Separate focus on human worth creates a genuine human centre • Not just an extended way of talking about things (UCD 1980s, UX 1990s)

Conclusions • Moving from commentaries on the changing nature of design to concrete development approaches • Normative constructions of designing and meta-principles guide development of frameworks • Refining and revising through case studies

Questions?

Thank You Gilbert Cockton Research Chair, Human-Computer Interaction School of Computing and Technology, University of Sunderland NESTA Fellow 2005-2007

From the Creation of Value to the Connections of Worth