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On May 13, over 350 people, 50/50 from Dutch industry and academia, and several guests from Belgium, Germany, and the USA, attended the morning symposium, and about 120 researchers and practitioners took part in the afternoon tie-in sessions.
all on video:
Click this banner picture to go to the Collegerama videos.
cover-cm5:
Click this cover to download the proceedings (27MB)

Watch it, or read all about it...

We have put the video-registration of all morning speakers online on this site. Later this summer, proceedings on paper will appear, also including a report on the tie-in sessions. We hope this will be some compensation for those who could not come, and for the people we could not admit because of the size limitations of the lecture hall.
There have been blogs and reviews on Waag blog (in Dutch; or try a Google translation), on Use log, on UNITiD blog (or try a Google translation), and on blog on concept product development (or try a Google translation), 31 Volts' blog, infodesign, contagious ideas, and Loucas's digital moleskine. .


May13 banner 500:

About five years ago, we started the contextmapping research at ID-StudioLab. In these past five years, four PhD students have explored various elements in the procedure. Several hundred students at TU Delft have learnt its principles, as did many design students and practitioners in workshops in the Netherlands, Europe, and Asia. Several dozens of students have explored, varied, modified, and reflected on the techniques, their possibilities and limitations.
In May 2009, the first 'contextmapping' PhD thesis will be defended. On this occasion, we take the opportunity to reflect on the new techniques for involving users in the fuzzy front end of product design. What was learnt, what are the opportunities and barriers in industrial practice, and what do we think should the next developments be?

Program

people 1-5: The program consisted of two keynote speakers giving the international perspective of the event, and a shortened pecha pucha introduced by Froukje Sleeswijk Visser.

Liz Sanders: Exploring Co-creation on a Large Scale

Designing for New Healthcare Environments and Experiences

A participatory mindset is beginning to change how new healthcare facilities are being planned and designed today. The activity is changing from a focus on the design of buildings to encompass collaboration with all the relevant stakeholders (patients, visitors, doctors, nurses, cleaning staff, ...) in designing for future healthcare experiences. I will show and describe some of the new tools and methods for design and research that are being explored to inform and inspire co-creation on a large scale.

Jacob Buur: Ethnographic Provocation

Making sense of user experiences

Sometimes user studies bring out knowledge that the company doesn't like; Knowledge that provokes the organization to see itself in the eyes of its customers and question assumptions and corporate values. "They use the product in a wrong way!" or "These are not real users!" are some of the reactions, designers and design anthropologists may get, when trying to convey user experiences. Simply designing better products doesn't solve this dilemma, but designers can use their talents to engage company employees in collaborative sensemaking and to generate critical provocations that challenge traditional understandings. Buur will analyse what happens in such situations and demonstrate ways of using video, games and mockups for sensemaking.

Froukje Sleeswijk Visser and ten recent graduates

"a good five years of contextmapping in design education"

Contextmapping techniques, e.g., Cultural Probes and Generative Tools, were introduced in the Delft design curricula in 2004. Over the last five years, dozens of students have applied and extended the techniques in projects in Dutch and international industries. In a pecha kucha style presentation, ten recent graduates will present their experience with the techniques in industrial practice, both during their studies, and afterwards in their professional experience. The graduates are Victor Visser, Christa van Gessel (now at zilver), Jonas Piet (now at participle), Sanne Kistemaker (now at Muzus), Annet Hennink (now at Achmea), Lex Dekkers (now at Favela Fabric), Merlijn Kouprie, Elisabeth Leegwater (now at Oliver Wyman), Martje van der Linde (now at Blauw Research), and Quiel Beekman (now at 4building)


The symposium concludes at 13:00.


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Afternoon tie-in workshops

In the afternoon there are invitation-only tie-in sessions, on related topics (more information can be had from the organizer mentioned after the topic):

About the speakers

Liz Sanders

Liz Sanders is President of MakeTools, a design research firm. She is a pioneer in the use of participatory research methods for the design of products, systems, services and spaces. Liz speaks about and teaches human-centered design to students, clients and colleagues around the world.
Liz's numerous design awards, patents, publications, presentations, and her proven track record in the marketplace have established her as a leader in the field of design research. Liz's client relationships have included 3M, AT&T, Apple, Baxter, Ciba Corning Diagnostics Corporation, Coca Cola, Compaq, Hasbro, IBM, Intel, Iomega, Johnson Controls, Kodak, Microsoft, Motorola, NBBJ, Procter & Gamble, Siemens Medical Systems, Inc., Steelcase, Texas Instruments, Thermos, Thomson Consumer Electronics, Toro, and Xerox.

Jacob Buur

Jacob Buur is Professor of User-Oriented Product Development at the Mads Clausen Institute at the University of Southern Denmark. His research focuses on the study of people, technology and work in order to create innovative products. Fascinated by bright user interaction designs he is convinced that we need more knowledge about design collaboration and design learning in order to improve product development processes.
Prior to his appointment at Mads Clausen he was Senior researcher and manager at Danfoss A/S where he was given the responsibility of establishing the User Centred Design group to build a core competence for the company. He has furthermore designed user interfaces for a range of products, including joysticks for excavators, electronic controllers for heating and refrigeration, valves and frequency converters.

Froukje Sleeswijk Visser

Froukje Sleeswijk Visser is the first Ph.D. student on contextmapping, a phrase coined in her MSc thesis, which indicate user participation techniques described on this website. In the past five years of PhD research, Froukje worked intensively with students and design teams in industrial practice to 'bring the everyday life experiences of people into design'. On the day before the symposium, Froukje defends her thesis (at 12:30 in the Aula).

Ten contextmapping graduates

During this first lustrum period, hundreds of IDE students learned about the techniques, several dozens applied them in-depth, and some apply them in professional practice after their graduation. The ten who present in this program did their graduation projects with large and small companies, on a diversity of experiences, user contexts, and products. Several are using the techniques now in design research and market research agencies, as independent designer, as design communication specialist, or have started their own company.

Materials

You can download the A0 poster as pdf (2.1 MB), or a screenshot jpg, Woodear Wang's stills compositionthat we showed in the breaks,.

There have been announcements in Product magazine, on Uselog, on the TUD-IDE site, at BNO, Suno's blog (in Chinese, or try a Google translation), the usability weblog, upcoming, DdUX, and Europa morgen.

More information

If you have questions about the symposium or about contextmapping, contact Pieter Jan Stappers.
codesign picture: temporary placeholder from Sanders and Stappers 2008 for CM symposium

(last update: April 22, 2009)

Last update: Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 2:48:28 PM