NEW METHODS FOR THE DESIGN OF PRODUCTS THAT SUPPORT SOCIAL ROLE TRANSITIONS

Abstract

Abstract As designers transition from traditional HCI practice to experience design, they need new methods that connect experience theories to design practice. Research on product attachment – detailing why people love their stuff – indicates that attachment develops as people use products to discover who they are and desire to be. This finding hints at a design opportunity for products that support social role transition, when people must invent themselves in a new role. In advancing experience design, the authors chose to connect the theory on product attachment to design practice by developing two new design methods. They began a pilot project to design applications that could support first-year college students as they shed their high school identities to become college students. This paper documents the development of these methods, detailing the authors’ application of these in a pilot study. In addition, it shares the authors’ reflections on the effectiveness of these methods and on the larger issu...