Research question
At the final stage of my M.Des at the Glasgow School of Art I set out to understand the methods and methodologies of citizen-design, asking If we're not designing for profit then how are we designing. The whole dissertation will be available on academia.edu shortly.
Engagement tools & focus groups
Through a series of tests of conventonal design methods I began questioning if it is possible for designers to adhere to a market-orientation while simultanoiusly focusing on a socio-economic imperative aiming for progressive change.
User journeys, user-led vs. user-centric design
Investigating the isolated role of the designer further the projected examined user journeys. As a conventional narrative tool aimed to highlight tensions in the market for the benefit of coroprations, this project used them through inversion to highlight tesions in the market (figuratively speaking) by creating a user journey to austerity.
This test design took the shape of a multiple-ending book where the objective of each "path" was to make it to the shop to buy a pint of milk to make a cup of tea but was in one way or another hindered by social constructs. This was done to highlight priviledge in contemporary society.
