Co-experience: Understanding user experiences in social interaction

68 2 USER EXPRERIENCE DEMYSTIFIED
standing. Empathy in the field visits is important as empathic design is based on
observation (Leonard & Rayport 1997). The observations can be documented
with rich media: pictures, video, sound, things that people have made or used,
scenarios, stories, and so forth (see Figure 14). These observations and materials
then need to be processed, organised and communicated with others.
Schön & Bennett outline three kinds of reflection in relationship to design.
Reflection is always spurred by an element of surprise. Firstly, reflection in action
happens while doing, and implies a process where the person begins to
observe the situation while doing and take it into account. Reflection can also
happen on action, which means that people stop what they were doing and begin
to analyse the surprise and its cause and implications. The third is reflection
on practice – which is how masters teach novices. (Schön & Bennett 1996)
Design empathy works because it helps to find the things that surprise, that
move, that are emotionally significant. Design empathy deals not only with
context, but also with the role of the researcher (for a more complete account,
see Koskinen & Battarbee 2003) (see Figure 15).
Empathic design is user-centred, but offers ways to extend the experiencing
into other contexts as well: role-playing, bodystorming and trying things out
can be important aspects of design studio work as well. As in usability, discount
methods such as cognitive walkthroughs and heuristics can help designers
challenge their own thinking; some of these methods can be seen as a way
to improve the experience vocabulary of the designers as well as to jump start
and fuel their creative processes at the office.
The empathic approach supports ideation more than the ethnographic approach,
because it does not imply that designing and learning about users is
separate. The results are often described as stories, scenarios, and even design
ideas. It could even be called more designerly, as it does not follow a strict methodology,
but rather puts the designers in direct contact with their end users at
least at times. The analysing is kept to a minimum; reporting is designed to be
convincing and rich and the emphasis is on personal experience.
2.3.3 PARTICIPATORY CREATIVITY
Design is often understood as a production process, but it can also be seen as
a learning process. In user centred “learning”, people are brought into a process
where they can together with researchers reflect on and construct knowledge
about their experiences (see Fig. 16). A true understanding of experience
happens when people are actually involved in the process, as more than just
informants (Sanders 1999), the term anthropology uses of the people they
study.