Thirteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

Collaboration is essential for designers today at a time when design increasingly shifts toward experiences and methodologies that focus on user needs. Especially in interaction design, designers need to be attuned to collaborative relationships with their “public.” I would then like to ask: How “collaboration” is taught in design education programs? From a cultural studies perspective, I wonder what incorporating social theory—specifically theories of cultural value and taste—into design education would do for designers-in-training? I argue that learning incorporating theories of cultural value and taste into design education would help create the conditions for better design experiences by more acutely attuning the designer to the conditions and context of their designs. In this presentation, I will review certain theories of cultural value and taste—such as the work of Pierre Bourdieu, Barbara Herrnstien Smith, and John Frow—and ask what applying their insights to interaction design education can teach designers-in-training about understanding users unlike themselves and unfamiliar contexts.