Design Moves, Sharon Helmer Poggenpohl

Sharon Helmer Poggenpohl discusses changes in her design practice due to an introduction to a different design strategy by Chan Screven. This change from where design practices have been- performed in an office or studio, removed from the end users- to a new setting- hands on and directly involved in the user's environment and with the users themselves. Designing interactively with users sets the stage for more innovative designs. She addresses changing the design of design.

Design envisions the future. Anticipating needs or problems is what a designer does. This shapes the future. What innovations are created can make a major impact (on our society, environment, planet) in the future.Prototypes reveal process in a tangible way to non-designers.Prototyping is crucial. It enables testing of an idea, checking for possible improvements, and allows an opportunity for a dialogue between designers and the end user. The dialogue is facilitated by generating prototypes; a focus, point of reference,is given to receive feedback and generate new ideas or make decisions about the artifact/solution. Refinements can be made.

To summarize design’s hidden moves, design envisions the future by:
• making abstract ideas tangible;
• engaging the user to help create a more fitting solution;
• focusing stakeholders on the idea as it develops;
• supporting negotiation among stakeholders as it reveals values and
implications of the design;
• supporting agency or decision-making.

Designers do not need to 'to science' in order to perform ethnography. They do need to know and understand the context in which their design is purposed. It is important that designers see and learn from authentic interactions with prototypes. Design nature is open minded, opportunistic, creative, and reflective- not formulated.

"This changes the design process from being immersive and abstract, largely
under the designer’s control, done in relative isolation to being more reflexive
and tangible, subject to user participation. The iterative shift, from attending
solely to the object of design followed by interaction between the user and the
designed object, heightens the designer’s sense of context, their ability to
interrogate the developing design and to question their process and knowledge

more honestly."