EXPERIMENTS AND EVALUATION OF A ‘DESIGN-FOR-DIY' FRAMEWORK
Year: 2023
Editor: Buck, Lyndon; Grierson, Hilary; Bohemia, Erik
Author: Hoftijzer, J.
Series: E&PDE
Institution: Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
Section: The effect that design and engineering have on global co-habitation
DOI number: 10.35199/EPDE.2023.108
ISBN: 978-1-912254-19-4
Abstract
This paper addresses the evaluation of the quality of a ‘Design-for-Do-It-Yourself’ framework by running a series of experiments and using questionnaires for both numerical assessment and open questions. The ‘Design-for-DIY’ framework was established in previous studies, as part of a scenario in which the professional designer facilitates laypersons to design for themselves. The scenario considered (a) a counter direction to today’s distant human-product relationship in the mass-production context, (b) the layperson’s innate capability and desire to create, (c) the designer’s responsibility (the product being the mediator between industry and consumer), as well as (d) anticipating the great potential of novel making tools and (e) the availability of online information. The experiments concerned twelve designers who were asked to develop a DIY project for laypersons, to facilitate them in designing and making their own radio receiver. The research questions addressed in undertaking the Design-for-DIY experiments centred on the quality and usability of the Design-for-DIY framework as a method and tool to support the designer in establishing a DIY project for the layperson. The experiments concerned six runs, each conducted by a different pair of collaborating designers. In doing the experiments, each pair of designers were assigned to the task of running a ‘Design-for-DIY’ project’ by using a set of tools for support: The Design-for-DIY framework (presented as a board game, sketching tools, of paper, glue, tape, radio electronics (for indicating the size of the components). The range of experiments themselves and the questionnaires subsequently completed by the twelve participants have generated both numerical data on a Lickert scale (graded responses to closed questions) and written recommendations (from observation and answers to open questions). The experiment concludes that the framework does address the different design tasks and design abstraction levels, it offers freedom to design your own path as a designer, and it addresses the iterative and pedagogic character that was required. According to the participating designers, the framework provided structure, guidance, information and references, and served as a checklist that helped fulfilling the task. The overall structure, with its successive cycles, was new to them but the stages to pass through were intuitively familiar to them, given their design education and experience.
Keywords: Do-it-yourself; Framework; Design-for-DIY; facilitation; research-through-design