Co-Design Session

The co-design session is a session dedicated fully towards designing with the case owner. Depending on the goals set, specific activities can be done to help reach those goals. As a group, the main goals set were gathering design requirements, figuring out the preferred style of the case owner, and gathering a concept direction for the product. After conducting a multitude of activities, the goals were reached.

Below are some pictures of the co-design session in progress, and some of the results. Click on the images to enlarge them.

The main things we learned from the co-design session were the following:

Functionality – For the case owner, functionality of the product (not matter what it is) goes above nearly all other things. The product needs to be functional and help relieve the issues the case owner faces to a certain degree. Aspects such integration of parts and style matter but are mostly just added bonuses.
Sustainability – One of the values the case owner has is sustainability. This value should be taken into account and integrated in the product where possible.
Fitting Style – The style of the product should match the type of product. So, it if the product were a laptop, the style should be modern, and technology focused. Incorporation of the case owner’s favourite colour, chili red, would be fun. If the product is anything else, it is important that it should be mainstream and fit in a lot of people’s homes. Thus, the Scandinavian style would probably best for that.
Laptop Direction – The preferred concept direction of the case owner is the adjustable laptop. Not only would it help their own issue to a certain extent, but it is also a marketable product in general. Furthermore, all of the other challenges faced by the case owner are relieved in one way or the other.

To learn more about the in-depth process of the co-design session plan and results, keep scrolling and reading!

Co-Design Plan

For the co-design session, a plan had to be made. After agreeing on the practical constraints with the case owner, meaning the date, time, and how many people were coming, the group as a whole had to decide on the goal of the session. What do we want to get out of the process? We decided on the following:

Gather/complete design requirements.
Understand the case owner’s style and product preferences.
Get a clear direction for the concept.

Similarly to the interviews, 3 Dutch group members would be part of the co-design session, due to Dutch being the case owner’s preferred language of communication. Because one of the goals was to learn more about the case owner’s style, the preferred location of the session was at their home. Ultimately, the session ended up being at their workplace.

For the session, an agenda was prepared and all materials necessary for the activities were brought, such as paper, markers, and placemats. Because plans can change and creative sessions such as the co-design can take different turns even though there is an agenda, we prepared and brought even more supplies. For example, we brought cardboard for low-fidelity prototypes, clay for potentially giving ideas of shapes and forms, and also tape, glue, coloured pencils, and measuring tapes. To not overwhelm the session when it began, most supplies besides the drawing tools were kept in bags.

For the agenda, we created a logical order of the activities we wanted to do and added potential breaks. The activities we planned aligned with the goals that were set:

Mind mapping for requirements.
Product style collages for style preferences.
Ideation for working towards a concept direction.
Measuring for working towards a concept direction as well as requirements.

The estimate was that the total session, so the introduction, activities, and conclusion, would last no longer than 2 hours including breaks. This, and the agenda, was communicated with the case owner and approved.

Co-Design Results

The following table will show the extensive results of each step of the co-design session.

Breaking the ice
When we arrived at the case-owner’s workplace, we went to their office. We sat down, were offered some tea, and we set up our materials and supplies on the table. Once we were all sat together, we started the session with the introduction.

First, we explained what our goal was of the Co-Design session. Then, we walked the case owner through the agenda, so they would understand why every part was necessary and what we would be doing exactly. The case owner approved of the agenda and mentioned that breaks would most likely not be necessary.
Consent for taking pictures
After the introduction, we showed the case owner the consent form which had only one added clause compared to the previous one (Interview Consent Form). The added clause states that we are allowed to take pictures during the co-design session and can use them for our project. These pictures could potentially include the case owner themself, and thus the additional statement was made that the case owner, and all other context that could lead to them, would be anonymized in the picture.

The consent form was signed.
What requirements should the product meet?

Starting off the co-design session, we introduced the mind map method. We would be using this mind map method gather the requirements of the product. To do this, we introduced the back box method to the case owner. We explained that the product was like a black box. The reasoning behind the black box was that during the first phase of the project, we got to an already specific idea/concept. With the black box we could generalize it again, so the case owner would be able to think more broadly.

We explained the black box as something they could take with them in their hands, and it would help them during their day. Then, we asked what requirements the black box should meet and what aspects it needs to have.

Doing this exercise alone is in itself quite difficult, so to help the case owner we involved ourselves by asking more questions and delving deeper into some parts by conversing about it. This allowed us to gather clear information on what the case owner exactly wanted, so the product does not include parts the case owner is not able to use.

The original results are shown in the first image below, but because that is in Dutch, a translated version version has been made as well.
Original (Dutch) Mind Map
Translated (English) Mind Map
Some more in depth-insights from the images above are:

Fix issue - According to the case owner, the most important and general aspect of the black box, and thus product, is that it should fix their issue (at least a little).

Test for sustainability - As for all the aspects of sustainability, the case owner said that the product does not have to meet each aspect, but it is important that we can test our product. We should be able to evaluate if there is another, more sustainable way of making it work.

Less if more - After talking for a while, the case owner said that ultimately, “less is more”. What they meant is the more aspects you think of, the less relevant they become. At some points, you start thinking of aspects for the thinking of aspect, not for the actual needs that you might have. We all agreed with this and moved on to the next activity.
What is the preferred (product) style of the case owner?

To gain a better understanding of the case owner’s preferred style in products, we showed a multitude of images of products belonging to different style. We asked if one or more of these styles appealed to them, and if so which particular style and product and why.

The first style that the case owner pointed out as one that appealed to them was “Modern” (see the images below). When asked why these, the case owner responded that they felt the style matched the product. This sounded quite abstract, but when we asked what they meant with that we learned that the case owner was already thinking about a laptop specifically. As previously discussed, one of the preferred design directions of the case owner is the laptop. A laptop, falling within the technology category, should have an appearance that matched the style of technology. So, adding a retro colour palette to a laptop would not fit. Furthermore, the case owner mentioned loving a little contrasting colour. For example, the little red accents on the Lenono Thinkpad are quite cool according to them.
Modern Style Collage
When asked further about the preferred style if the product was not a laptop, but rather coming back to the black box principle, the “Scandinavian” style was mentioned. This is due to the style most likely fitting with and for the most amount of people. The minimalistic appearance and light and neutral colours would fit in most people's houses. Furthermore, this style reminded the case owner of Ikea products, and according to them, almost every home in the Netherlands owns at least one Ikea product. This would mean that this style is “gangbaar”, meaning okay for everyone.
Scandinavian Style Collage
Because ultimately, we are designing for and with the case owner, we wanted to know more. So, we delved a bit deeper. Some questions were asked regarding the case owner’s house. The case owner lives on a big farm, which is mostly painted red, yellow, and green on the outside. Those are the colours that they prefer. When asked whether one of those colours is their favourite, red was the strong answer; not a super bright red, that is almost coral, and not deep red that is almost purple. When looking through some shades of red online together, “Chili red” was the preferred shade.
We conversed a little bit about interior room styles as well. After sharing our preferred styles, we were shown a picture of one of the rooms inside the farm. This room was a big and open space, with wooden roofs (painted red) and stone floors.

After some more conversation about the farm and horses that the case owner owns, we also learned that they love leather. Overall, however, they do not really care about leather and the exact style, as long as it matches the product.
Ideating with the case owner based on the concept directions

The next activity we did was ideating together with the case owner. We spent the most time on this, but we also learned a lot.

Initially, we were not completely sure how to approach this activity. In the moment, we decided that it made the most sense to us to explain a potential design direction we found based on the previous interviews. After we explained that, we showed the matching concept direction sketch. By linking the sketch back to a specific something we already learned, the conversation about this topic opened up, which allowed us to go even further into it. We mostly talked through each concept direction and "talk ideated" further upon it. Later, this was visualized as well.

Because we already knew from previous interviews that the case owner was very interested in the adjustable laptop idea, we decided to discuss and ideate upon that one last. By really going into the other design ideas first, we hoped to show the case owner the potential of the other directions.

We had 5 design directions prepared:

Rocking Chair Bike

Mobile Car Seat

Horse Riding Gear

Electric Weed Extractor

Adjustable Laptop.

To see the summarized results of the ideation with the case owner, click through the following image gallery. To read about the full results, click on one of the concept directions above.
Measurements based on office setup

When the ideating was concluded, we continued to the measurements. Because we assumed we would probably continue with the laptop design direction, we had to know more about the working position of the case owner and the relation to the set-up of their computer screen and keyboard.

Right before the co-design session we learned that for design, there are specific rules for measuring people found in “ISO 7250-1:2017 Basic human body measurements for technological design”. Because it was on such short notice, we were unable to dive deeper into this. However, we did look another measuring guide of Physical Ergonomic. Then, we realized we would not really measure the human body but more the relation between certain parts of the body and the case owner’s specific office set-up. Because we did not plan exactly what to measure, we mostly measured what seemed relevant in the moment.

Click on the image(s) below to enlarge them.
End of co-design session

After finishing up the measurements, the 2 hours were nearly over. As a concluding note, we thanked the case owner for their time and effort. We also informed them of a future co-evaluation session, as well as shortly described what that would probably entail. We started packing up, and before we left, we promised to keep the case owner updated on our work.

After the co-design session was finished, a summary was made. Then, the whole group sat together, and discussed how it went and the results. The group members who conducted the co-design session explained the preferred design direction of the case owner and why. We all critically looked at the ideating we did again, and as a group decided that we would go ahead with the laptop for our chosen concept direction. Then, based on our understanding of the context and co-design session results, the list of requirement was finalized.