Dear Esra, Johann, Martin and all,
Thank you for offering such rich ways to think about objects, designers, users and their interaction.
Johann, I’m not familiar with ANT (now I want to know more) but I can see what you’re saying about human and non-human actors “having an influence not only on the initial design, but most importantly on how the product is used” in the example of the iPhone in the Apple store.
Esra, with my writer’s hat, the question about who the author(s) are also reminds me of writers of scenic description, who count on the audience as a trusted collaborator (Kaufer & Butler, 2000) and need to be careful not to ignore audience collaborative needs. And as you say, when the user is conceptualized as the “object" of the process (whether writing or design), the research also suggests that point of view falls short. So acknowledging the audience as author/collaborator is critical, even though it’s difficult to translate the abstractions of user data and turn that into invention and composition in more material terms.
Your post is also complicating the idea of aesthetics for me in a good way—that we need to not only remember that we work from underlying principles, but also that those principles are directed by forces that are implied as well as explicit.
And Martin, I will definitely look for David’s book. It sounds enlightening. I’m very interested in reading about historical shifts—how morphing definitions become hidden because time interferes with perception (?).
Thank you!
Susan
> On Jul 6, 2017, at 5:11 PM, Esra Bici <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Dear Susan and all,
>
> While I was just getting away from the discussion and decided to go passive
> mode and digest what have already been discussed; your mail motivated me.
> Thanks.
>
> This phrase of yours is so inspiring, I think: "*designer/non-designer who
> helps to create the design."*
>
> It is worth rethinking about.
>
> I am just making a brain-storming.
>
> The total aesthetics experience.. I can start with asking who is the actor?
> Who is the subject? The designer/or design team is the one that creates an
> experience and the user is the one that enjoys that experience. So who is
> the author? Both of them?
>
> As Don points out, the designer may create and design an aesthetics
> experience but the user may not be satisfied with it; like in the early
> iphone cases. By the way I want to thank Don for sharing such an archieve.
>
> Traditional views may consider the designer as the ultimate subject and the
> user as the object of the design process. For those views, a user is like
> an 'ergo-man'. But these views are criticized and eroded by new flows,
> especially like contextual inquiriries, lead-user innovation, applied
> etnography, and so on. (For an extensie discussion, you can look : Sanders,
> E.B.N. Design Research in 2016; Design Research Quarterly, V.1:1 September,
> 2006.)
>
> So there is an aesthetics intention by the designer regarding a
> product/service/experience. The designer manifests his aesthetics regarding
> his background. He makes sketches, creates forms, considers sensual
> experiences etc. He may also conform to industrial aesthetics, which is
> also an important category of aesthetics and which does not mean *"no
> aesthetics"*. In that context, I also aggree with Stuart that even the
> chips have aesthetics considerations: *"Let¹s remember that these frames
> themselves, most often formed around industry standards, were designed by
> someone, often around an aesthetic game." (By Stuart)*
>
> And then the product is passed to the user realm. The user enjoys the
> aesthetics experience by its form ('beautiful" appearance (like the
> forklifts), correct ratio, harmonious colours), by its tactile properties
> (for example soft touch, texturized areas where hands touch, etc., such
> concerns), by its symbolic qualities. Symbolic qualities are not created
> with just the designer. It is created by the firm, by the sector, by the
> industry, by the capitalist hegemony, by consumption cycles, by social
> values. and that symoblism also goes for the aesthetics of a product. In
> this part, the *user* can be considered as the *consumer*. For example a
> product that doesn't fit into the symbolization of a certain lifestyle, is
> not supposed to be defined as *'aesthetics'*
>
> So to sum up roughly, the total aesthetics experience of a
> product/service/experince is the union of the aesthetics
> intention/enjoyment of both the designer and the user. Susan's expressions
> triggered these ideas in my mind.
>
> Thank you
> Kind regards.
>
>
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