KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Gilbert Cockton - Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

Profile:

Gilbert Cockton is Professor of Design Theory as well as Head of the Department of Media and Communication Design at Northumbria University in North East England. His current research focuses on interactions between designers' capabilities, values and knowledge and re-usable adaptable resources that form documented approaches to design activities. This integrates much of his previous research on software design, usability, accessibility, cultural design, user experience, worth and philosophical aspects of interaction design.

Keynote talk:

Design Isn't a Shape and It Hasn't Got a Centre: Thinking BIG About Excellence in Post-Centric (Interaction) Design

Abstract:

Design is a complex creative human activity. Interaction Design is rarely a personal enterprise, but most typically occurs within inter-disciplinary teams. Design is social as well as cognitive, emotional and embodied. Such complexity means that we should be very cautious about locating the secret of design success in any single homogeneous area of design work. Thus, while successful Interaction Design may be partially or substantially the result of user-centred activities, it can never wholly be the result of user-centredness alone.

We need to move beyond looking for the secrets of design success in a single factor such as user empathy, creativity, business models, design craftsmanship, technological opportunities or the management of design innovation. No single factor can guarantee success in isolation, but one does appear to be indispensable, and that is the committedness of the design team, whatever its composition (e.g., designers only, designers and stakeholders, designers and co-designers). Committedness alone takes design teams beyond meeting requirements to surprise and delight through a generosity of spirit that strives for excellence by default.

Such design teams are generous, and seek to deliver designs that no-one imagined were possible. Thinking BIG about excellence in (Interaction) Design is thus enabled by a Balance of factors, their effective Integration and the Generosity of the design team. Designers' minds, moods, buddies and bodies all have important roles here. Making the most of what design teams have to give requires a range of resources and approaches to shape their use. In this keynote talk, I will review the different functions of design resources and how these are combined within approaches and completed through design work that can achieve excellence through Thinking BIG (Balance, Integration and Generosity).