Master thesis

Motivation I'll be frank - involving users in the design process was totally greek to me two years ago. It was in my first design course of 'experimental design of IT' in the fall of 2010 that I was presented to User Centred Design, Co-Design and Participatory Design.. etc. A whole new world, I tell you! 

Unfamiliar to the idea of including the users in design decisions, I found it even more challenging to actually find these people to involve.. participants were either busy, not available at the same time, or just simply afraid to speak in the group. We have all these great methods that actually work wonders to bridge the gap between designers and users if you have the right set of people for the right project, at the right time and place.. for the right method. Yeh.. 

I found inspiration in my every day distractions of Facebook, Twitter, online newspapers and blogs. No matter where in the world we are, or how busy we are, we are never too busy to share, connect, communicate and be on Social Media. It seems like we have become dependent on sharing our thoughts, ideas, opinions, and even what we had for breakfast. And with today's technology we are almost always 'present'. Also, in terms of design - good ideas come from this historical increase of connectivity (Steven Johnson 2010). Participatory Design can benefit from using Social Media to extend their reach to users, and explore participation and design beyond the physical setting.

Approach Ethnography

I was inspired by the book "How to be an Explorer of the World: Portable Life Museum" by Keri Smith (2008), and used some of the methods she presents for documenting my daily discoveries. I found out that research and ethnography does not have to be boring at all. 

Recommended by yours truly for a fun and inspirational exploration 

My portable research museum

I present to you the red book. This journal contains everything from the explorations logs I have written from discoveries through the jungle of Participatory Design literature and Social Media, notes from meetings, to a messy mix of thoughts that have popped into my mind in the middle of my sleepless nights. There is no copy or back-up made of this journal, so I if I lose this I. A.M. S.C.R.E.W.E.D...