Domestication and people-centred design in the case of three-dimensional city environments
Marinka Vangenck Jo Pierson
Keywords: people-centred design, domestication, innovative service development
In the paper we investigate to what way we can involve the domestication approach in the people-centred design research. In order to be successful, new technologies need to respond to the needs and practices of users. We therefore first look at people’s current domesticated practices and the way they interact with technologies present in their everyday lives. In a next phase these insights can be integrated into an early stage of the new product development process.
Technological innovations in media are often perceived as too complex or irrelevant by users. However, the awareness is growing that involving users in the product development process increases the chance that new products and services will actually link in with the expectations, characteristics and practices of future (end)users. This has originally been formalized in the field of Human-Computer Interaction, with the notion of
‘User-Centred Design’ (UCD) (Veryzer & Boria de Mozota, 2005; ISO, 1999). ‘User- centred design emphasizes that the purpose of a system is to serve the user, not to use a specific technology, not to be an elegant piece of programming’ (Norman, 1986:61).
However, within UCD the user input that is integrated into the design process is often more focused on individual experiences, while media technologies are domesticated in the everyday social life world of people. Therefore we prefer to talk about ‘people- centred design’, within which the social context and possibly the domestication perspective are included to obtain user insights (Wakeford, 2004). The domestication framework is a central perspective of looking at the meaning and experiences of technologies in the everyday life setting of users (Haddon, 2007; Silverstone & Haddon, 1996). Traditionally, domestication research focuses on the appropriation and use of media technology being introduced in the home.
The findings are based on the people-centred research in the URBAN project (IBBT).
This project is mainly a technological project that focuses on the research and development of computer generated three-dimensional city models. Our role in the project is to investigate and identify potential service innovation in relation to the 3D city models, as early as possible in the development trajectory based on potential user practices. For this we have set up a multi-method user research in the preliminary phase, for understanding the link between the services that are to be developed on the one hand and the expectations, characteristics and practices of future (end)users on the other hand. Our main question is aimed at tracking user insights and how these insights can optimally be integrated in the service development in relation to 3D city environments.
In the first place we conducted a horizontal scan of the existing domains of user interaction with the visualisation of virtual three-dimensional by means of a literature
study. This enabled us to evaluate the innovative opportunities of the identified domains through empirical field research. Within a participative design exercise with the technological partners of the project, we now look for the most optimal ways to embed the characteristics and practices of the user in the technological development process.
The case study shows how people-centred research in relation to domestication (from the concept phase onwards) plays an important role in the development of media technology. First by obtaining a better idea of the potential target group and its needs and practices and secondly by steering the development process in an iterative way, together with all the people involved.
REFERENCES
Haddon, L (2007) ‘Roger Silverstone’s legacies: domestication’, in New Media Society, 9, 25-32.
ISO (1999) Human-centred design processes for interactive systems (ISO 13407:
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Norman, D A (1986) 'Cognitive Engineering', in Norman, D A & Draper, S W (Eds.) User centered system design: New perspectives on human-computer interaction. Hillsdale:
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Silverstone, R & Haddon, L (1996) ‘Design and domestication of information and communication technologies: mechanica change and everyday life’, in Mansell, R &
Silverstone, R (Eds.) Communication by design: the politics of information and communication technologies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 44-74.
Veryzer, R & Borja de Mozota, B (2005) 'The impact of user-oriented design on new product development - An examination of fundamental relationships', in Journal of Product Innovation Management, 22, 128-143.
Wakeford, N (2004) ‘Innovation through people-centred design: lessons from the USA’. Guildford: University of Surrey, 72.
