My chosen topic for this term within constellation was “Designing With People” within this topic I explored not only the benefits of working with other designers within a project, but also the benefits that come from keeping a line of communication with the customer. Focusing on how this would create a more efficient and effective product and how this process is being introduced on a global scale. Also looking into the effects of inputting empathy within design and looking at examples throughout.

Starting with a short introduction detailing the unit in general, I was excited about what concepts lay ahead of me, I first viewed Constellation as an opportunity to not only learn new things about various new subject areas due to the fact that students from multiple disciplines from within Cardiff School of Art and Design attend the same class, but I also felt that it gave me the opportunity to look at my own practice in a different light, after being informed that I would be referring the knowledge gained from within Constellation study groups and relating it back to Graphic Communication I was eager to learn more.

Beginning the first week by completing an exercise in small groups where any way of that could be used to squeeze a lemon was placed onto a list, with an emphasis on quantity over quality. I found this exercise an effective introduction into the topic area as well as a functioning ice breaker for those within small groups. I found the focus on Designing WITH people, not FOR people, to be a useful outlook and felt it helped me understand my own practice better, serving to hopefully make me more effective and more understanding of my target market/audience later in life in a career within Graphic Communication. I took away many questions from the first study session, after only briefly learning about “Designing with People” I was left questioning what sort of work would follow up in the coming weeks. However I was particular interested by the exercise where we were shown different well known constructed products and asked to list what groups of people were involved in the creation of that product. This made me reflect on just the sheer amount of people that are involved in the conceptual design, funding and actual construction of a product that I had never previously considered.

Moving onto the second week I looked into the protagonists and antagonists of design. Still focusing on the key element of designing with people rather than for people we were asked to design a product from a blind chosen design brief, assisting in the realisation that in order to design effectively, the end users must be involved in the design process and not simply presented with the final outcome and expected to adapt. Within this brief we were asked when we would include others as well as what groups of people we would include, this was a very interesting exercise due to the fact that it appeared that, although everyone involved was taking an art based discipline, the varying areas of Art and Design that we were taking meant that we were able to present many different views and conflicting solutions that related to the way something is designed and made within our own unique subject areas. For example perhaps a Ceramics student would offer a different approach to the techniques and processes that would be present from a Product Design student. It was interesting to learnt about the wide range of different approaches could be taken to complete one single task, as well as hearing the reason behind why different people felt they were more/less effective. Overall I found this exercise very useful in broadening my mind in relation to the concept of designing with people.

Another very useful part of this session was learning about explicit and implicit knowledge, realising that others gain a natural base level of knowledge unique to their work area, perhaps unknowingly, alongside learning that within that area is the vast majority of an individuals knowledge was extremely surprising to me. It is also very unique to individuals due to the fact that Tacit knowledge is very hard to share, it is very much knowledge that is naturally picked up “On the go”. As well as the majority of creative knowledge being placed within the tacit category, perhaps this is the reason why experimentation and building portfolios is such a vital area of Art and Design. Within this session was also a small amount on essay writing itself which I found useful when it came to writing my 1000 word essay paper on my chosen topic.

Testing is an extremely important part of the design process. Especially if there is a focus placed on the “Co-Design” aspects of the product creation. Typically the design process begins with the team empathising with the audience to gain an understanding of the needs of those they will be providing for, following on from this the problem is then defined further in order to gain a more clear vision of how that problem will be solved by designing the product within the brief. Ideas and concepts then need to be formulated followed by an initial prototype, the prototype then needs to be endlessly tested with those who will be using it once it is deemed safe, if the prototype is not satisfactory then a step back is taken to remedy the problem, perhaps more empathising is needed to better understand the users, ensuring to always retain the knowledge gained from the initial tests and not abandoning previous ideas. Learning from mistakes becomes a vital part of the design process, any area where a response is given from the users becomes extremely important as you will not see the full picture if you are not collaborating with not only other designers, but also with other users.

Referring back to the “Empathising” section of the previous paragraph, learning how to empathise with your users is extremely important and needs to be achieved before any further areas of the design process can begin, understanding the needs of those who will be using the product allows you to not only create a more effective product but makes a closer connection between designer and user as well as making you a more effective and efficient designer. I learnt that empathising can be achieved in many different ways, whether by engaging directly with the users by participating in interviews with those who would be affected by the creation of the product. Or by simply conduction studies on users by monitoring their needs, likes and dislikes you can begin to think like they do, ideas can then be translate back to the team of designers and an effective concept can begin to formulate.

Overall I found this Constellation topic useful to my area of practice, learning valuable lessons such as working with others as well as learning the basics and fundamentals of empathy with the concept of Tacit knowledge being introduced to me i now understand that in order to gain the more Tacit knowledge of users you must collaborate with them in more ways than simply assuming how a product should be designed by interacting more closely with them you will uncover greater amounts of tacit knowledge and overall create a more effective product. If i were to be involved in more sessions within this topic I feel it would personally be improved by including more examples of designing with people within my own practice area, as although multiple examples were given throughout the weeks, very few of them seemed to relate to Graphics specifically, finding examples myself was difficult as I was not sure what to search or where to search, overall noticeably extending the time it took to write 1000 Essay paper on empathy and Spontaneity within Art and Design.