Dear Lenita,
The colleague before me has already told you which fields to look for. I just want to add a brief note that in the business & design anthropology community there is a lot of discussion on client communication. If you check the Ethnographic Praxis in Industry (EPIC) Proceedings you'll find a lot of content on this theme written by research-practitioners located in business and academic scholars interested in questions of practice. Some are formally trained designers, others are anthropologists or other stripes of human scientists. Concerns are similar.
I myself have written about this theme in past. With hindsight, this is a part of my work I am no longer that proud of, due to the lack of explicit articulation with some of the fields Birger just mentioned to you. I do believe that the idea behind that writing is correct and I am still working on it. Following Viveiros de Castro, I call the relation between client and expert a form of "controlled equivocation". I hope it addresses some of your doubts.
It's not like client and expert will always arrive at a similar referent, it's only that the nature of the misunderstanding between them is different from either side (the misunderstanding of the client is not the misunderstanding of the expert...and vice-versa). Some people see design as a way of narrowing the gap between the two forms of misunderstanding. Some people see "culture", in its applied sense, as a bridge between them (which obviously does not exclude design). That would take us into another discussion. Being able to control the equivocation between the two forms of misunderstanding is the role of the expert, not the client. And in that role, your job as an expert, or mine, or others, rekindles with its true importance.
Good luck with your search.
Pedro
PhD Anthropologist, Psychologist, Independent Ethnographic Consultant(and I can dance too)
On Thursday, July 31, 2014 9:15 AM, Birger Sevaldson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Dear Lenita
I think its a problem of architecture and its design culture. I suggest you look into the vast litterature on user orientation design, co-design and participatory design as approaches to step UP to the clients knowledge level and to create a good dialogue. The client is an expert on her own situation.
The design approach you talk about is rather dated in a scandinavian context (and many other places) of product design, service design and systemic design, while we still find this patronizing design culture amongst many architectural firms.
If you can contribute to change this it is great!
Sendt fra min Sony Xperia™-smarttelefon
---- Lenita Psychogios skrev ----
Dear List Members,
I am a current design student who has completed a Bachelor Degree in
Interior and Spatial Design and currently undertaking an Honours degree,
looking into design communication and how we (as designers) can step away
from visually stunning aesthetics of design to articulate our concepts to
clients who are 'non-designers'. Throughout my course of study it became
known to me that we get tied up in speaking our design lingo to
non-designers who potentially have no idea what were talking about. This
became apparent in one of the units I completed. It sparked an interest
when a head of department at my university told me that they had designers
fly over to present to them a new design concept, which contained
beautifully executed CAD drawings and a wonderfully crafted speech telling
them what they needed, all the while this individual was clueless with all
the details of what they were being offered.
I have come to you intuitive designers abroad to seek any readings, advice
or other means that can help present situations where we don't use design
principals to present concepts and instead use other means that work just
effectively but are not used often enough.
Essentially I am aiming to find the following:
What aids in the clients decision making process.
What are other alternatives that designers can use to aid in the decision
making process.
How can we better the relationship between client and designer.
What are the benefits - if any - for designers to step down to their
clients level of understanding to ensure they understand what it is they
are getting involved with.
What methods of research can be used.
And finally, can designers step away from using design principals to
articulate concepts.
I was also wanting to ask if any designers have worked in Perth Western
Australia and have found any flaws when working here and if so are there
any avenues you can suggest be implemented here, which you have used
elsewhere and found effective?
Many thanks in advanced!
Regards,
Lenita.
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