IDEMC: Thing-Centered Design
As objects around us begin to collect and exchange data, it is possible they may begin to suggest ecosystems and enable designs we could never think of. Thing-Centered Design (TCD) is a new way of researching and designing in partnership with objects, data and algorithms that looks into the creative possibilities of post-industrial design. TCD offers a toolbox of concepts and unconventional design methods that complement human-centered design skills and expand designers’ ability to frame and solve problems.
Contemporary things (from connected products to intelligent personal assistants to smart contracts) can “sense” and “think” in ways that previous industrially produced objects could not. A fresh perspective is needed to fully understand how things will take part in design and use next to us. This fresh perspective is Thing-Centered Design.
During this Master Class, you will:
• understand what is a thing in the postindustrial era;
• apply thing-centered design in ways that complement human-centered design;
• select and devise thing-centered tools and techniques for enlisting things as co-ethnographers and co-designers, to expand human imagination and capabilities;
• select and devise thing-centered tools and techniques in design practice.
Elisa Giaccardi is full Professor of Interactive Media Design at IDE, TU Delft, where she established the Connected Everyday Lab, a research team exploring the future of design in the emerging
landscape of data technologies and artificial intelligence. She is a frequent keynote and TEDx speaker