Chapter 4: Participatory Design Experiments – Gaining Context-Sensitive Insights
4.3 Stage 1: Participatory Design with Novice Users
4.3.6 Experiment Repeated with Foreign Expert Groups
This resulted in the visual representation being ready for the participating four designers to get involved in collective form generating exercise that was to follow as the next stage of the research.
Figure 4.49: Visual Representation of Participatory Data
DISCUSSSIONS
The data was made ready for designers. After the participatory design session with different users, the researcher presented and published the paper in PIN-C conference in Sϕnderborg, Denmark. Conference organizers also requested to bring both toolkits and conduct a workshop with other presenters and experts of Participatory Design in the conference.
4.3.6.1 Preparation
Two groups were formed and the groups were provided with abstract and concrete toolkits for participatory prototyping.
4.3.6.2 Conducting
The researcher explained about how the toolkits operates. The session was videotaped.
One microphone was kept on the table to capture their voices. Toolkit was provided in the center of the table. Both the groups had four members. Participants were researchers from the area of participatory design, psychology, industrial design etc. The researcher briefed them about the experiment and the problem of ‘bridging the gap between two wheelers and cars’. The researcher played the role of observer, and moved from one table to another for the same.
Figure 4.50: Participatory activity with concrete toolkit in Sϕnderborg, Denmark
Figure 4.51: Seating schematics of participatory activity with concrete toolkit
Figure 4.52: Participatory activity with abstract toolkit in Sϕnderborg, Denmark
Figure 4.53: Seating schematics of participatory activity with abstract toolkit
OBSERVATIONS DURING THE SESSION
International participants were quick to start the conversation, shared stories and used the toolkit. There were light movements and some serious prototyping, but the group went lull after a while. People got exhausted. Here is the summary of both prototyping:
4.3.6.3 Analysis: Concrete
PD SUMMARY (CONCRETE TOOLKIT)
It started with the explanation of toolkit and understanding the background of the same kind of experiment done with the Indian groups. The interest was to find their way of looking at the gap between 2-wheeler and 4-wheeler. In India people prefer utility and choose vehicles, which can perform various tasks of individuals and their family.
Table 4.11: Excerpt of transcription 43 Person 4 I have three cars
44 Person 3 You have three cars, I don’t have a driving license 45 Person 1 Things happen. You wanna buy one ?
46 Person 1 I have one car and its there on the … Station car…so
47 Person 4 What irritates me really is that there are a lot driving around in that car which is way too big 48 Person 1 Yeah
49 Person 1 We have a staking car, we don’t. I mean. We have two and we never use it 50 Person 1 And then we have a small car with only two seats and lots of room on the back 51 Person 1 So you can have a Christmas tree and take the …… and that’s the one we use the most 52 Person 1 And now we have got our another own car which have a couple of more seats. So that, you know, if they have to take somebody somewhere, we can still do that
53 Person 1 So that, you know, if they have to take somebody somewhere, we can still do that 54 Person 4 Also you know that there is a very much of western problem.
55 Person 4 People buy a bigger car because there are some occasions where they need a big car 56 Person 4 And if they are not in occasion or they have to buy a Christmas tree…
57 Person 4 They have money only to buy one big car. So it has to ….. Everything
When they started with the discussion, one member said that she uses her 3 cars for different purposes. From there the idea of multi-utility and modular units came into picture. All the people cannot afford to have different cars. So, there is a need to have some kind of flexibility in the cars, which can act as multipurpose vehicle. People don’t want big car all the time but occasionally. So, the idea of sharing or borrowing was agreed upon. They discussed about the feasibility of such cars, and should have some solution to retain or store unwanted unit when not in use. Therefore, it has to be easy to attach and detach. Or it can just be a collapsible unit. They tried different forms with the given toolkit to represent their ideas. They tried to attach 2 cars which can be easily converted into single car/ car with more of a storage place or car with the more seats.
They can be attached like how train compartments are attached. This can be done in sharing basis as per the requirement of individual. Another idea was to attach car to a moped, which will be more like trike. They also thought of plugging two engines together when two cars are attached to each other.
While having discussions with other members, they realized that everyone was not involved in building unit out of toolkit because of accessibility issue. Each one could see only one perspective of the form. Solution was to have a round table so that everybody can see the unit from all the perspectives. The toolkit was concrete, but when they tried to convert their ideas through them, it turned into an abstract unit. Also, they mentioned that this final form of the model is not exactly what they want to convey as they faced physical constraint in the toolkit and output was close to their ideas.
4.3.6.4 Analysis: Abstract
PD SUMMARY (ABSTRACT TOOLKIT)
They found it interesting to form a vehicle out of those given blocks. One of the members shared her experience of her visit to India where she found around 22 people travelling in 1 rickshaw. So, it is very necessary to have flexible unit for transportation so that these people can be accommodated. In a way, they thought of finding corresponding issue in their society too. One of the members came up with the idea of bringing sustainable cars that can last for say 60 years, which needs to serve the purpose of different phases of your life. Like how people are doing with their houses, they are making them flexible.
According to them, requirement of a car for single person is very much different than a family. Here some kind of extendable concept will make sense. They illustrated it with the given blocks. One of the larger boxes is a kind of large unit, which you only need at the time of holidays. This unit can be shared among the people who want them and can be attached to their own car as and when required. They thought that the idea of sharing is ecological and cost-effective. Many people own bikes or scooter but for moving something then they need cars, therefore this concept of sharing is relevant. But the issue in this concept is that people normally like to make cars personal, they leave their stuff in the car itself. If you are borrowing it then you have to clean it every time and it will be like hotel check-in/check-out. One member added the necessity of variation in engine power, as borrowed unit will consume more power than normal car unit.
Table 4.12: Excerpt of transcription
21 Person 4 these two boxes just make this real time and each day you build your car
22 Person 2 i like sharing idea but first i was thinking if you have all the parts you can make it yourself ..
but in India you don’t have money to do it .and you don’t really need it… i like the idea of sharing…
23 Person 1 but from the ecological problem…we have the same problem but we don’t have the same economical problem ..
24 Person 2 i always use the bike for shorter places but if you are moving furniture you will need like a car or something
25 Person 1 that’s interesting I am also a biker and i have only the bike but i don’t have a car .. so for me cars are strange …
26 Person 4 we bought the first car when we had our first son it proved to be difficult not to use.. but there were concrete circumstances especially the stuff you need around the kids( diapers) 27 Person 1 therefore you can imagine also that there is this concept of sharing car where you go borrow the car when you need a car .. you can imagine that the small unit can be borrowed and the additional unit you can borrow … various other units if you need them…
28 Person 4 and i think some people would like to have something of their personal because people put their stuff in their car , for us the house is small so the car for us is additional storage space ..
but if you borrow , you have to clean it before giving it back.. it would be like a hotel ..
One member shared his experience of their first car as it was bought when they had their first child. According to him car becomes a necessity at this point of time especially with the stuff you need to carry along with the children.
They also discussed the idea for creating living space in the car, which can act as a part of house as well. There could be a unit at the back of the vehicle, which can be attached or detached. They also shared ideas for using this car space for different purposes like using it as office, watching movies, children’s play area etc. like how carpenters live in their vans and store their tools.
They found the blocks in a toolkit iconic but kind of abstract. They were mainly talking about modularity of the vehicle and therefore those blocks were not enough to present their thoughts. According to them, they can calculate the number of different forms which can be made out of blocks by selecting them. So, this process is more of selection rather than creation. In short, they started with the possibility of arranging the blocks to
form a vehicle and ended up with the concept of modularity and creating living space in a vehicle.