Designing for wellbeing

environments. In chapter 5, Tjhien Liao writes about narratives and scenarios
as vehicles for design. Scenarios, i.e. stories about using future
products and services, have frequently been applied to support design
ideation, communication and evaluation. Liao, however, puts stories into
a much more central role, claiming that when designing for wellbeing, a
story about agony might already be a meaningful result of design. Giving
voice to those who cannot speak for themselves is necessary, demanding
and sometimes enough.
In chapter 6, Katja Soini and Heidi Paavilainen reveal how they went with
a student team to the Mellunkylä suburb – and stayed there. They rented
office space and turned it into a temporary suburban design studio. Their
methodological approach to designing for social wellbeing was built on
being and working in the area, in immediate dialogue with its people and
atmosphere. A design studio in the field gave students an eight-week window
to look at the neighbourhood, providing a more comprehensive insight
than occasional visits while still avoiding the blindness of overfamiliarity.
Kirsi Niinimäki, Malin Backman (chapter 7) and Sandra Viña (chapter 8)
write about creating social wellbeing through involving local residents in
changing their neighbourhood through means that fall outside of the traditional
scope of professional design, such as events and temporary public
art. However, they are means to change the environment and especially
change the way people see their own role in their neighbourhood through
introducing something new and meaningful. Thus ‘design interventions’
is a suitable name for this type of design-supported citizen activity.
Next goals
We learned a lot about what seems to work within the emerging field of
design and wellbeing, but during our attempts to design and learn we also
met several challenges. The lessons learned therefore include the identification
of our next learning goals. Figure 3 summarises the agenda for
understanding and developing design for wellbeing education.
17 · Design, wellbeing and design for wellbeing