Design Scripts: Designing (inter)action with intent | Leurs

Design ScriptsDesigning (inter)action with intentDesignThis! – Bas Leurs (December 2, 2010)

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My ambition: to understand how designers think and how they can improve their processes to make better and meaningful products

Remember Charlie ‘The Philosopher’ Mulholland?

Latour’s concept for describing the mediation of action by artifacts is called a ‘script’.

Like the script of a movie or a theatre play, an artifact can ‘prescribe’ its users how to act when they use it.

Bruno Latour’s scripts

Bruno Latour

You walk inYou look for you favourite spotYou sit downTake your notebookListen to the lectureMake notesApplauseLeave the auditoriumWrite a review

This lecture has also a script

Speed bumps, the scriptis: ‘Slow down!’

Examples of scripts

Paper coffee cup, thescript is: ‘dispose me after use’

Examples of scripts

John Chris Jones on

the objectives of a

designerIn Design Methods (1970)

“The designer must be able to

predict the ultimate effects of

their proposed design as well as

specifying the actions that are

needed to bring these effects

about.”

Which one would you buy?

You’ll find scripts throughout the life of a product

Manufacturing Distribution Sales Installation Maintenance DisposalConception

Selling it to the clientBuilding prototypes

Should be possible and cheap to produce and easy to assemble

Should be lightweight

Should catch the attention of the buyer

Should be easy to install

Should be easy clean and replace the bulb?How can it be repaired when it breaks?

Should be good for the environment

Striping of DutchPolice cars

Examples of scripts

Striping of Dutch Police cars:Roadblocks, visual presence, applicable to many vehicles

Examples of scripts

Password strength indicator

Examples of scripts

Password strength indicator:Persuade or challenge people to select a safe password

Examples of scripts

Wii

Examples of scripts

Wii: playing together andmoving instead of sittingon a couch?

Examples of scripts

I consider scripts a bit like ‘Automator’ scripts

With a sequence of actions

The designer has intentions how the artefact should interact with its user(s) and context.

A design script intends to affect the user behaviour (or mind) in a predictive way.

Economics & Political Sciences

Choice architectureRichard Thaler, Cass Sunstein, John Balz

In!uencing public behaviourLegislation

Architectures of controlLawrence Lessig

In!uencing public behaviour

Philosophy‘Enscription of artefacts’Bruno Latour, Madeleine Akrich

Persuasivetechnology

Persuasive technologyBJ Fogg

Design withIntentDan Lockton Game

Design

Cognition &Schemata theory

UsabilityA"ordancesDonald Norman

Event schemata (Scripts) Mandler, Schank & Abelson

Behavioural ScriptsCraig Anderson

Serious games

Educating, training and developing behaviour ,

mindsets

Change attitudes or behaviors through persuasion

EducationIntervention scriptsBarnett, Bauer, Bell, et al

UsecuesKanis, Rooden, Green

How technology a"ects peoples life

Error prevention,ease of use

Acquisition of knowledge, skills and values

Cognitive structures of knowledge

You will find the principles of scripts in many fields

But scripts can go wrong...

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I believe that there are also human centered scripts orscript routines

Scripts can be disruptive...Disrupting other scripts

Scripts can be discruptive...Disrupting other scripts

Or scripts can be misplaced

Or scripts can be misplaced

Elements of scripts

Actor (User)

Objective (intention)

Artefact (Product)

Context (Scene)

Sequence of (inter)actions

How I tend to design?

Design as learning“As a designer you gradually gather knowledge about the nature of the design problem and the best routes to take towards a design solution. “Kees Dorst in ‘Understanding Design’ (2003)

John Chris Jones on

the problems of a

designerIn Design Methods (1970)

“The fundamental problem is

that designers are obliged to

use current information to

predict a future state that will

not come about unless their

predictions are correct.”

Kolb Learning CycleLearning from external phenomena

Doing

Understanding the phenomena, drawing conclusionsWhat does it mean?

Doing an intervention What do I feelsee, hear, taste,

smell etc.?

Experiencing a phenomena

Thinking

Reviewing

Feeling

Kolb Learning CycleLearning from internal mental processes

Conception of

a script

Doing

Understanding my feelings, contemplating my intentions, definition of objectives

“Why, how. what?”

Running a scenario:Envisioning the intervention

“What if...?”

“What do I feel?”Evaluating my feelings

My gut feeling

Thinking

Reviewing

Feeling

Trending topicsDesign as Value CreationDesign to fuel Innovation

For example:Service DesignTransformation design

Why this learning process is important

We design for a world where technology is becoming more and more complex and more integrated in our daily lives

Design is becoming more holistic, less tangible and a product of multidisciplinairy teamwork.

In order to predict the outcome of your design (the behaviour it invokes), you have to learn about ‘the world’ (context, user behaviour, technology).

But learning is not enough, the make the outcome of your design predictable, you also have to make simple and robust scripts.

My best tip...

Have fun with scripting!