Masters of Industrial Design
David Moorhead Student Number 1756036
e: 1756036@student.swin.edu.au p: 0412275806
artisan designer codesign in the age of
ecommerce INTERVIEW INFORMATION PACK
artisan designer codesign in the age of
ecommerce
Contents: Hello from Dave Project Aim and Form Three Key Goals Why Interview You? Principals of Ethical Engagement
artisan designer codesign in the age of
ecommerce
Hello from Dave
david Moorhead designer and engineer
Hi, Thank you for diving into this information pack and thank you for considering being interviewed for my research project. I’m really keen to hear your thoughts, opinions and experience of the topic I’m exploring and I’m certain that your input will help me produce an output that is interesting, useful and powerful. If you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to contact me via phone or email.
David Moorhead Student Number 1756036
e: 1756036@student.swin.edu.au p: 0412275806
artisan designer codesign in the age of
ecommerce
Project Aim and Form This project was setup with the initial premise being the exploration of relationships between Artisans, Designers and Customers. The context being cross cultural relationships between artisans from countries that still have a living cultural tradition of artisanal production (e.g. India, South East Asia, South America and Africa) and designers from countries that have destroyed their cultural traditions through the application of industrialisation and mass production. When exploring these relationships in the current body of literature several key themes stood out that deserved new exploration and research: ‘the ethics of designer-artisan engagements’; ‘whether Co-Design could be used as a tool or service for information transfer and education’; and, ‘whether there was a method or approach to design for Artisan focused Ecommerce markets’. A topic was proposed to explore these elements: “An exploration of designer artisan co-design relationships with a view to their utility as a design service, a catalyst for artisan design, a design education tool and cross cultural relationship building exercise. The focus of the co-design will be on designing for the emerging artisan specific e-commerce markets both locally (in India) and globally.” Being a design masters the decision was made to document the research into this topic in the form of an interactive web page.
artisan
designer
Customer
research based thesis exegesis
visual communication
accessible communicable Interactive
The Aim
The Form
to explore design relationships
interactive web page thesis
artisan designer codesign in the age of
ecommerce
Three Key Goals The research that will underpin the development of the web page will utilise a variety of different methods:
M1
M2
M3
M4
M5
M6
M7
PEER REVIEWED LITERATURE
NON-PEER REVIEWED LITERATURE
INTERVIEW
EXPERIENCE
OBSERVATION
CROWD SOURCING
E-COMMERCE LIST
The scope of the project proposed on the previous page was very large so after conducting a significant amount of literature review and presenting the results to several academics with significant experience in this area of design three key goals for the project output were developed. These goals limit the scope of this project but also enable it to achieve some distinct outcomes that can be effectively documented in a web page format. The three goals are shown below:
Exploration of
Exploration of
Draft proposal of
codesign as a service for artisans delivered by designers
designing for artisan focused ecommerce
principals for ethical engagements by designers With artisans
It is these three key goals that will form the focus of the interview questions that will be asked if you decide to be interviewed.
artisan designer codesign in the age of
ecommerce
Why Interview You?
You are a professional who works in the International Development field. As such you are Subject Matter Experts (SME) within the limitations of your experience. In my initial literature research on this topic I found that many of the design relationships between Designers and Artisans were occurring in communities that are far poorer and underdeveloped than the ones the Designers come from. This characteristic meant that those designer-artisan relationships were occurring in contexts that are commonly the focus of International Development. In many cases ‘development’ outcomes were sought, either intentionally and unintentionally, through these designer-artisan relationships and in some cases were even labelled ‘design interventions’. It is my intention in exploring the project topic posed above to better understand the overlap between equity in design collaboration, development outcomes and the effects of the imbalance in ‘power’ between the Designer and the Artisan. With this in mind I believe that your perspectives, opinions and experience with Co-Design or just the concept of Co-design in this context will be different and interesting by comparison to the designers I will be speaking to. Further your perspectives, opinions and thoughts on a set of ‘principals’ for ethical engagements between Designers and Artisans, given they often occur in a developing world context, will be powerful and of great value to my proposed principals.
What sort of Questions am I going to ask? The questions will be focused on the Co-Design and Principals for Ethical Engagement elements of the project.
You may or may not have experienced the use of Collaborative Design (CoDesign) in your professional experience, but you will have had some exposure to the need to seek out greater equity in how programs are developed for the communities you are seeking to serve so will have some perspective on the challenges faced in implementing it. I’m certain that in you time working in International Development that on some level you’ve studied or just explored what it means to engage with people who are subject to ‘development’ from an ethics perspective. This is an area in design that isn’t always thought through or considered in depth before diving into collaborations and partnerships. Please have a look at my suggestions for some considerations and principals that designers should think about before embarking upon an engagement with an Artisan if they want to have the most ethical outcome.
artisan designer codesign in the age of
ecommerce
Principals of Ethical Engagement
When it comes to trying to ensure you conduct yourself as a designer, a professional and a human in the most ethical way possible I believe that the best way to start is to educate yourself about the situation, the context and the people you will be engaging with. I propose that a set of principals and standard considerations should be worked through by a designer before engaging in a professional relationship. By honestly working through these principals and considerations a designer will not only be in a better position to understand the person they are engaging with but will be able to modify their own behaviour, expectations and approach to reduce the potential for unintentional abuse of the power they have in the desired relationship. The principals and considerations below are my first attempt at defining a list for use by designers, what do you think? Are there ones you would add or change? Have a think and we can discuss your thoughts in the interview.
power
understanding
ownership
interpersonal respect
intentions
outcomes
expectations
protection and respect for culture and tradition
relationship
length of engagement
needs contingencies realities
recognition
cultural context perspective and understanding
type of engagement