Next Wednesday, Mari and I will be doing a run through of our workshop in Sean Donahue’s Art of Research class. In the past two weeks, we got a lot completed: we submitted our workshop to the conference, worked on putting together a prototype of our “blank probe package,” lined up a workshop run through time with Sean Donahue, and refined the content of the workshop itself. Here is the basic overview of the workshop:
OVERVIEW
The aim of Probes: a Designerly Way of Researching is to give participants hands-on experience creating cultural probes—designed objects and activities used in qualitative research studies. Using our design capabilities and intellect, what can we, as designers, create to understand the people for whom we are designing? How can we gather meaningful feedback through the creation of tangible objects and visual communication tools and games that can lead to greater empathy and understanding?
Participants will be divided into small groups and presented with an issue and a question. Using a “blank probe package” provided to each group, participants will be asked to design several “probes” that can help them in their research endeavors. At the end of the exercise, we will come together to critique and evaluate each groups’ set of probes and sketches to help clarify as well as better understand the use of probes as
beneficial tools for research designers.
DESIRED OUTCOME
The desired educational outcome is to give participants hands-on experience that demonstrates the potential of innovative, non-traditional methods of research through the use of probes. The workshop aspires to encourage designers to contribute and apply their skill sets in the research arena.
WORKSHOP CONTENT
The workshop will be limited to 50 minutes. The workshop will begin with a brief overview defining probes, showing samples of probes that have been used in the Media Design Program at Art Center College of Design. Participants will be divided into small groups where they will develop their own probe prototypes and sketches based on a given research question. This will be followed by a critique and short discussion about the results of the exercise. In conclusion, we will share examples of the feedback gathered through actual probe-based design research projects held in our year-long Super Studio course.
Workshop Timeline (0:50min):
(0:07min) Introduction – Presentation: What are Probes?
(0:20min) Probe-Making Exercise (break-up into small groups)
(0:18min) Critique/ Discussion
(0:05min) Conclusion – Presentation: How probes were used in MDP Super Studio projects
This is a photo of a rough prototype of some of the items that would belong in a blank probe package. We wanted everything to look as generic as possible in order to give the participants the freedom to design and shape them to their needs. We are refining this for our workshop run-through on Wednesday so keep a lookout for our posts about it.
July 27, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Hi
Sounds like an interesting workshop. I’m unclear as to who is your target audience. Designers only or a mixture of professions?
If it is for designers, graphic artists or others who are comfortable with drawing then you should be set. If it is a mixed group with non-artist types than you might run into the fear of drawing or I’m not an artist or other feelings along this line.
I would suggest that you structure the workshop so that non-artists can feel comfortable participating. Let them know its OK to draw stick figures, etc.
Also your framing question that the participants will be responding to is critical to the outcome. Is it leading or open-ended? Makes all the difference for the results you get (or not).
The tools we design for these kinds of group discussions are based on photographs. One reason we chose this method was to overcome the phobia a lot of people have about creating art. Remember that 2nd grade art teacher who told you that cows can’t be purple?
Good luck