Computer Support for Participatory Designing – A Pilot Study

Computer Support for Participatory Designing – A

Pilot Study

Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen 1, Henna Lahti 2, Marjut Iivonen2, & Kai Hakkarainen3

1 Savonlinna Department of Teacher Education, University of Joensuu

2 Department of Home Economics and Craft Science, University of Helsinki

3Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Finland

hti@Helsinki.fi

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the present study was to analyze whether and how students working in the collaborative learning environment (Future Learning Environment, FLE2) were able to share their design process with the intended user of the product. We organized a collaborative design course in which six teams of first-year university-level textile students (N=24) solved an authentic and complex design task -- designing bags of EuroCSCL conference -- with the help of FLE2-environment. The design course was based on the idea of participatory design process. The methods of social network analysis were applied to study interaction between the students, teacher and the users in the F LE2 database. A more detailed qualitative content analysis was carried out by analyzing the design thinking, design activities, and interaction between the students’ and teacher’s and the users’ statements posted to the F LE2 database by two of the design teams. The results indicated that in the more successful group, there was more active dialogue between students and expert users (i.e., avid conference-goers). In the case of this team, the expert user took a role of co-designer by participating in the design process through evaluating ideas produced by students. In the case of the less successful team, the teachers and users took the role of organizing students’ process of working with FLE2 and their collaborative designing. This group did not deliberately test their ideas with the expert user.

Keywords

Collaborative designing, knowledge-building environments, participatory design

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of the present study is to analyze how university students’ collaborative designing may be supported by an environment for computer-supported collaborative learning and to find new methods for evaluating the users’and teacher’s contribution to students’ design process. Collaboration and teamwork are essential aspects of professionals’ practical activity in the field of modern design (see, for example, F erguson, 1992; Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995). Professional designers routinely share knowledge, such as design ideas, visual sketches, and interpretations, among members of a design team. A few studies, however, have specifically analyzed design processes with respect to collaboration or teamwork (Hennessy & Murphy, 1999; Perry & Sanderson, 1998; Valkenburg & Dorst, 1998). An analysis of collaboration in networked virtual design studios (Gabriel & Maher, 2000) has appeared only recently.

Most design studies concentrate on students’ design processes yet the teachers’ or users’ roles have not been analyzed closely. Teacher modeling and demonstration, an important aspect of studio teaching, however, is known to be crucial in facilitating the development of students’ design expertise. The purpose of the present study is to examine how collaborative designing is supported in the CSCL environment. There are many open questions, however, concerning how virtual design studios should be arranged (Kvan, 2001). It is important that students are not left working alone without guidance in the design process. A teacher is needed to structure the process and provide advice for the students in traditional design studios as well as in virtual ones. According to Kvan (2001), the virtual design studio requires greater responsibility of the students to control and self-organize their works. The communication between the students and the teacher also has to be more structured than in face-to-face interaction. Wells (2001) has written about teachers as either co-inquirers or organizers of a learning community’s activities; similarly we may recognize corresponding roles of design teachers or expert users participating in designing, i.e., talk about 1) teachers and users as co-designers or 2) teachers and users as leaders and organizers of the design process.

The idea of giving an "expert user" an important role in designing relies on the notion of participatory designing. As the complexity of artifacts being designed increases, involvement of the users becomes more and more important