Saddek Rehal

Titel: Phd. Architecture

Position: Researcher/teacher

Field of research: Participatory design. The design dialogue at the early stage of the process of design

@mail: saddek@chalmers.se

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

Designing in the Dark. Ghent 2007

Bridging light and dark The aspect of participation

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

Designing in the Dark. Ghent 2007

•”In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is not a king he is a gibbering idiot”(Colin Cherry).

Content:

• Dialogue process• Design process • The problematic of the verbal language• The phenomena of seeing • To bridge experiences• Some examples on how associative images can

improve communication• Perception and representation, some examples

Designing in the Dark. Ghent 2007

Today it is widely admitted that a dialogue between experts and concerned users/citizens is needed in order to achieve a good process and

thereby to get a satisfactory result.

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

Every human is a bearer of knowledge.

Architects and designers are more and more aware of the importance of the

users’ knowledge.

Designing in the Dark. Ghent 2007

What is design?

• to develop pre-conceptions of something not yet existing• to act in a situation ’before facts’• language is necessary as an instrument to express and communicate the

pre/conceptions• the pre/conceptions are communicated through different media• when pre/conceptions are communicated a dialogue is at hand• in the dialogue, pre/conceptions are created by the participants together• Design is not one man’s business

Design is a form of dialogue

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

’To design is to search for something that does not exist and still find it’(De Plaute)

Designing in the Dark. Ghent 2007

The three different levels of dialogue

Inner dialogue

Dialogue with one self

Reflexion, feedback Reflexion

feedback

interpersonnel dialogue Thinking aloud

Just thinking

Communicating

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

The different modes of existence of the artifact along the process of design

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

Verbal expressions.

Diffuse concepts expressed by the

client/users

Perception affection.

Percepts and affects

Conceptualization

Inner representation

Stage 1, in mind

Graphical representa-tions

Interpretation by the designer of the concepts

formulated by the client

Stage 2, through representation

Stage 3, through realization

ArtefactRealization

Stage 4

The artifact can be seen as a language in constant construction during the process. This construction is an act of design.

The phenomena of seeing• We don’t see really. We see as (Wittgenstein). • We perceive things and recognize them as house,

stairs, chairs ,tables, cars etc, because we already have and master the concepts ”house” , “chair”, “stairs, car”etc.

”We should see a dead animal on our plate if we didn’t had the concept beefsteak” (Ramirez)

• We see as in a fanciful manner. One can see a triangle as an arrow, or a tent, or a mountain etc.

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

Designing in the Dark. Ghent 2007

Communication: bridging experiences

“If a lion could talk we shouldn’t understand it”(Wittgenstein).

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

The language stands often on the way for us when we communicate.

Designing in the Dark. Ghent 2007

The worst is that sometime we seem understanding each other when in reality we don’t

Pieter Bruegel the Elder

The verbal language

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

The language is an amalgam of different language games developed in different praxis (professional, cultural, social etc...).

The concept is what permits us to see and to conceive the reality in which we live.

We don't see things as they appear to us, rather we interpret them by means of concepts that we already have. Our modes of representation are colored by our identity, (socially, culturally, professionally etc...).

We tend more easily to look for solution to our problems in the limit of what we already know.

What is discussed in the beginning of a design process by the participants doesn't yet exist and is to be constructed. This situation is characterized by the absence of concrete references and the lack of suitable language.

In conclusion, it can be said that the design process in the early stages is a construction of a suitable language by all the participants (users/citizens, experts etc.). This language is the embryo that gives birth to the final artifact.

• Construction an deconstruction of a concept

Some examples that illustrate the limit of verbal language

• Different conception of one and the same phenomena

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

Deconstruction of the concept”bad air”

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

The concept “bad air”, formulated verbally by participants to describe their work environment, was understood by the interviewer as the “bad quality of the physical air” in the building. When the participants was asked to show pictures that illustrate what they mean by bad air, they chose pictures that show what bad air is not. They explained that, bad air is the absence of openness, feeling the seasons, the weather and the colors of nature. It is what they are missing in their workplace.

Construction of the concept”positive chaos”

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

The concept “positive chaos”, was introduced after a long discussion between participants with different professions on the subject of education. The concepts teaching and learning was first discussed (picture to the left). The participants came to the agreement that creativity is also an important ingredient in education, they found a picture (picture to the right) to illustrate that character and call it “positive chaos”.

Different conceptions of one and the same phenomena

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

When people with limited knowledge and awareness on each others’ experiences meet, it occurs – because of “the home blindness” – communication barriers between them.

Multimedia! What is it? And for whom?

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

Two professions’ way of conceiving the phenomena

“Multimedia”

The physicians’ conception of the phenomena Multimedia

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

“…it is the fact that multimedia can give visual impression… an impression of experiencing, so to say, which can not be done normally…” (Pelle)

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

• ”… it is a combination of visual things, beautiful things…that have deep…. It shows for example… how much astrophysics and space can be visualized to show course of events. …. and it is both amusing and informative” (John).

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

One have a centre in his hand that is radiant, or it is knowledge that is sent out”(Pelle).

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

It looks like that… it is a part of a whole that is combined in different ways. It illustrates our… it is an important visual element that is evident to day and that can be the basis of what we are talking about…” (John).

The architects students’conception of the phenomena

Multimedia

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

”… I think that we use too many words in our culture. Words can hamper communication, ….. reduce the entirety. There is an understanding that lies on another plan between people, and also inside oneself, which I think can be pictured…“(Angelo).

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

”Here we can say that we approach the borderland….. The image is here to show the breadth and the dimensions of the human need of communication. If we only focus the uses of media, then we must be aware that we reduce communication and impoverish it….” (Angelo).

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

• ”… but it has to do with surfing away, going out, communicating over the world…. And it is, in a way, a feeling that has to do with multimedia: to control in order to convey something, or to move out in the world….” (Claude).

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

• It is a medium … to stir the imagination. A kind of medium… one communicates… But here it is maybe just a means for imagination; a dialogue with oneself…..” (Eros)

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

”I feel a multimedia centre as something that can be much more than a room with computers.” (Claude).

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

In the conceptual world of the architect students

In the conceptual world of the physicians

The aspects of the Multimedia concept

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

We are blind in our world of concepts until we reconsider them and conceive something new.

The benefit of bridging experiences

Some examples

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

– ”Whatcher doing”– ”Playing”– Whatcher playing with?”– “Cars, can’tcher see?”– “What sorta cars?”– “The long bits are lorries, the short ones are like mum and dad have, the thick ones are tractors. Ain’t you ever seen a tractor?”– “Course I’ave, but tractors don’t look like that.”– “Well, ‘ere they do”

An example from a 3 years old boy

Perceiving, understanding and communicating ….

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

Perception of an illiterate 3 years old boy.A personal experience

”Mamma ‘egade’ (regarde)”” mmm””Bibi i (rit)”- “mmm”

And he turns the book up and downSaddek Rehal

Chalmers University of Technology

-”’egarde’, Bibi ple(regarde bébé pleure)”

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

One possible reason is that he has no experience of casseroles

But, he could easily perceive what a literate adult cannot perceive immediately (the crying baby)

Why?

He recognised a baby and could see it laughing. But, he didn’t recognise the casserole as the adult does immediately.

Why?

The possible reason is that he cannot read and this ignorancemakes him free to hold the book in any direction.

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology

• The meaning of this workshop is not to teach you how to solve problems related to accessibility, but rather to help you enlarge your vision to embrace the complexity of the design process.

Thank you for your attention

Saddek RehalChalmers University of Technology