Extreme design: understanding design when nobody knows what “it” is for.
Annie Gentes, Cedric Mivielle
The Codesign lab works in design research mostly in the field of IT. We are interested in invention and breakthroughs, when nobody knows what the technologies are for. This is what we call “extreme design”. This situation of extreme design has led us to think about the different methods that designers and inventors use to build their new artefacts. We therefore address experimental, social and semiotic practices with an emphasis on how designing is about meaning making.
This presentation focuses on ludic design as part of the paradigm of design research that explores new ways to implement computer systems. In this paper, we want to further explore the specificity of ludic design. First, we introduce Bill Gaver’s definition. Second, we compare his claim to theories of ludicity that were developed in sociology and psychology. We then analyze a portfolio of artifacts to better understand how ludicity is embedded in the designs. Finally, we come up with three additional characteristics of ludic design: unconventionality, serendipity, and reflexivity through breaching experiment. These three dimensions of ludic artifacts also help us better define ludicity as openness that is an activity that is generative of meaning and ultimately new artifacts and practices.
Bios
Annie Gentes is associate professor (Maître de conference HDR) in Information and Communication Sciences at Telecom ParisTech and Head of the Codesign and Media Studies Lab. She teaches a number of graduate courses in new media art, innovation and design and is co-head of the MA (M2 research) "Design, Media, Technology" with the University of Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne and the Ecole Nationale Superieure de Creation Industrielle. Her research focuses on extreme design and ICT. She consequently works with artists, designers and researchers in engineering to understand their specific contribution and gamut of creative activities that turn a technology into a cultural artifact. She therefore has been involved in the production of works of art based on the internet since 2001 as well as academic and industrial research ICT research projects. In particular, she has worked on distributed architectures, peer to peer applications, and Virtual intelligent Agents to develop specific applications and services.
Cedric Mivielle
Graduate of Ecole de Design Nantes Atlantique (interaction design) and the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d' Arts et Métiers (Research in Virtual Engineering and Innovation), Cédric Mivielle participated in research projects about the Internet of Things, smart cities or e-education. For three years, he has taught user experience design at Telecom ParisTech. He is doing a PhD in partnership with Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs, which addresses the issue as playful design experience and in particular in ubiquitous computing. He explores a methodology based on action research through the creation of artifacts to test hypotheses with users.
Research topics:
- Playful, games, ludic
- User experience design
- Ubiquitous Computing , Internet of Things and new digital objects
- Semiotics in design