From teatime cookies to rain-pants

From teatime cookies to rain-pants: Resolving dilemmas through design using concerns at three abstraction levels

Ozkaramanli, D. (University of Liverpool)
Desmet, P.M.A. (TU Delft Design Aesthetics)
Ozcan Vieira, E. (TU Delft Design Aesthetics)

2018

Users often have conflicting concerns (i.e., dilemmas), such as ‘embracing change vs. following tradition.’ Design can resolve these dilemmas through simultaneously fulfilling conflicting user concerns. This paper proposes three abstraction levels for framing user concerns when formulating dilemmas. In a large-scale industry project, we identified that dilemmas can be formulated
and resolved at different abstraction levels. Based on these preliminary findings, we developed a structured way to formulate dilemmas, which involves using three different types of concerns (i.e., product-, activity-, and identity-focused concerns). In this framework, product-focused concerns represent the most concrete concern level and identity-focused concerns
represent the most abstract level. Sixty master-level design students were asked to formulate a dilemma evoked by a product of their own choice and to create design ideas to resolve this dilemma. The results showed that dilemmas involving all concern levels can be an input for ideation, with the ‘most abstract yet informative’ dilemma being the most inspiring. In addition,
we found that design can resolve dilemmas in several distinct ways, where each dilemma-resolving strategy comes with opportunities and challenges.
Consciously formulating and examining alternative dilemma formulations
can create opportunities that might otherwise not be considered as input
for ideation.

Emotion
idea generation
design methodology
problem solving
design synthesis

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2b33d4b9-f3dd-4552-a3b4-21b13bfde404

https://doi.org/10.1080/21650349.2017.1381042

2018-10-28

2165-0349

International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation, 6 (3-4), 169-184

Accepted author manuscript

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2018 D. Ozkaramanli, P.M.A. Desmet, E. Ozcan Vieira