HIDDEN DESIGN
introduces
An authentic Belgian butcher is best left at
his chopping board, an illiterate Indian farmer
should not participate in a co-creation session
and an Algerian pub owner should be running
his daily business - especially when new
technologies are about to change their lives.
Hidden Design reveals pure, sincere insights
as these people unknowingly become part of a
design process.
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We believe that systems which successfully tap into today’s possibilities can never be designed beforehand, they ought to emerge from within the context.
Yet, we design for these complex systems. We believe that the products and services within these systems should revolve around the people interacting with them. These people, and the way they interact within their context, become the most essential parts of the system itself and the starting point for our work.
We only measure success by evaluating to what extent the lives of the people we design for changes towards the
project’s goal. We do not design the system behind this, if we are successful, the system emerges.
We want to take existing ways to gain insights in the way people respond to new designs one step further. Commonly used design methods such as co-creation, focus groups or design probes still project or reflect on suggested situations, approaching people as research participants. We hide our design and research process, presenting prototypes as finished products and playing roles to create real life scenarios. We become the designer equivalent of a secret agent, searching for pure, sincere insights by hiding our own motives.
The beauty of Hidden Design
We are living in an interesting yet complex society, with lots of design opportunities. I believe that our current society requires new design methods and processes that support the exploration of design opportunities for this society. What can
technology bring us? To whom do we like to be connected at which
moments in time? Do we want to share things online or offline? How can technology help us to enjoy the pleasures of life?
Hidden Design explores such questions in a beautiful way, without us citizens even knowing it. Afdeling Buitengewone Zaken simply explores and offers its vision as if it is already part of our lives. We can experience and respond to its designs. We can feel the potential power of technology. We get a glimpse of our future. But meanwhile, its designers are
working extremely hard to enable us to experience. They are the Wizards of Oz; they make it feel simple and real. And that is the strength of the Hidden Design method of Afdeling Buitengewone Zaken. In a time where technology offers us so many possibilities and the complexity of the system to be designed is enormous, designers need methods to deal with this complexity: methods that tap into the experience of people in their everyday life. And that is what Hidden Design does. It is a beautiful new method for the
designer of today, designing the world of tomorrow. I’m proud when seeing our MSc graduates from Industrial Design, TU/e help to envision and build not only our tomorrow, but also the tools and methods for getting there.
Caroline Hummels
Professor Design Theory of Intelligent Systems at the
department of Industrial Design at the Eindhoven University of Technology.
Systems
• Systems cannot be designed, they are too complex
• Products, services, people and their behaviour exist within a system
• A system exists in multiple perspectives
• A system emerges from people interacting with products and services
People
• Not all people are designers
• Projections and reflections are less true than actions
• People respond honestly in their natural context
• People do not act sincere when they feel observed
Instruments
• Real prototypes that provide people with a final-product experience • Existing infrastructures that offer opportunities and possibilities • Designers to play roles where the system is not yet available
Process
• Designing is implementing, implementing is designing
• Be in the context
• Be a designer, intervene
• Pivot until a succesful system emerges
• Play a role if no product or service is available
• Use your empathy to define guidelines for next iterations
• Accept your effect on the system
This publication accompanies the Hidden Design exhibition by Afdeling Buitengewone Zaken.
At Afdeling Buitengewone Zaken we design propositions for societal challenges. We explore new and unknown fields. Either because we think the world needs it, because companies and organisations challenge us or because new things that do not work well frustrate us.
We are seven strong-willed guys midway between artists, designers, geeks and entrepreneurs. We are native prototypers, creating both digital and physical systems. We are educated academically and cannot help but reflect upon the projects we do. We are convinced that the way we work contributes to the world of design. In this issue we present Hidden Design.
We are Billy Schonenberg, Gordon Tiemstra, Jan Belon, Jeffrey Braun, Jop Japenga, Marcel van Heist & Marnick Menting.
To contact us, send an email to contact@afdelingbuitengewonezaken. nl or visit our design studio in the Apparatenfabriek at Strijp-S. For more of our work see afdelingbuitengewonezaken.nl.
Photo credits:
p. 1, 2, 4-5, 8: 2013 Lisa Klappe © 2013 by Afdeling Buitengewone Zaken, Torenallee 26-06, 5617 BD, Eindhoven, The Netherlands. HIDDEN DESIGN FIRST ISSUE
Colophon
HIDDEN DESIGN MANIFESTO
Become the designer equivalent of a
secret agent, searching for pure, sincere
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Energy in rural India
Connecting local retailers
In huge parts of rural India, daily life rises and sets along with the sun. People live off their land and direct trade in cloth and spices. They live their lives without a need for money and electricity; such basic necessities to us in the West. However, some technological advancements, like the use of mobile phones, have seeped into these tribal areas and prove a great success. With these developments, the lack of an infrastructure to support the growing need for electricity becomes increasingly apparent.
Early 2012 an interesting response surfaced when a small shop opened in Moghaon, a tribal village of barely a hundred families. Renting the solar panel that sits on his roof, Suresh Kumar now charges small lamps during the day to rent them out to his neighbours at night. Village life in Moghaon continues after sunset. Suresh is a pioneer in a self-sustaining energy system. Others now follow his example, some renting solar panels as well, some opting for alternative sources of energy. As more of these small businesses open in his area, a local energy market is emerging. Soon he will be able to sell his energy
excess after sunny days, and buy energy on days of rain. The new local energy market makes sure that offers and demands meet and customers get charged lights regardless of the weather.
As this village - and others much like it - become electrified, a smart grid emerges in rural India. This system takes on two major challenges of our world today simultaneously: sustainable energy and development of rural areas. Even though technological solutions to such societal
issues often seem to be readily available in theory, successful implementation remains an enormous challenge.
Since 2012 we apply Hidden Design to explore and develop new energy networks in rural India. Mohgaon was our start. Aiming for a vision on the future of smart grids, the main challenge was to get people to actually use the technologies needed to end up with such networks. As western designers we can hardly fathom the cultural processes at play in such tribal villages, let alone oversee and adapt them. Yet it is exactly these processes that are essential to a network of trade.
We approach the villagers as potential customers, presenting a product as part of an operational system. In turn, they approach the solar panel and the lamps they rent as actual products, judging them for what they are worth within their lives and using them the way they want. The resulting system is not based on assumptions or projections but on actual experience.
As Henry Ford once famously put it: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” The context of this project exemplifies this point. Early attempts to co-develop this system resulted in cultural insights not concrete enough to form a solid base for design solutions. To bluntly introduce a new technology in a society too complex to possibly understand is ultimately a way to respect that culture. As interferences are adopted by existing
infrastructures and behaviours, they merge into new ways. The energy network that started with Suresh two years ago continues to grow, and currently forms a company named Rural Spark.
Although digital technologies and the internet offer enormous opportunities, they do not always suit people’s needs. One of the fields still largely untouched by these technologies is small local retail. Within small communities in Belgium, local bakeries,
butchers and other shops are very important to their surrounding residents. Customer retention, loyalty and service are essential to any small business’s survival. Technology seems to have no place here, yet.
With this context in mind, Riantis - a company that develops residential service systems - challenged Afdeling Buitengewone Zaken to create a platform to improve current processes in these communities. The project set out to develop the possibility for people to order groceries from local shops; a bakery, a butcher, a small supermarket and a greengrocer. To fit the local characteristics of these suppliers, their end of the system was a receipt printer, which printed out the order using a medium the suppliers were already accustomed to. The involved customers were offered a digital platform where the local shop owners presented their goods. Rather than having a
rigid standard web shop, it felt like a place to meet the local shops, in a way they would experience it in real life. A home delivery box was placed in front of some houses where orders were delivered, so one could stay within the comforts of their own home or have their groceries delivered while at work. During a period of three weeks the entire system appeared to be operational in a small Belgian village. Under the hood, or rather in a hotel room somewhere in the village, we were doing everything within our powers to keep things smoothly up and running. If people didn’t use the system, the technology around them was quickly adapted to better accommodate them. Information was gathered and technology was adjusted as we went around town pretending to be maintenance people, sales people, or whatever role was needed to connect with the local people.
While playing a different role as part of the Hidden Design process, we remain designers. We can change things on the fly, improvise within the possibilities of the system we want to emerge and try out different variations. By trial and error, If this change is an improvement and makes the
system better, it is kept, else it is discarded. Slowly but surely the improvements are incorporated in the products within the system and we design ourselves out of the system, leaving a fully operational system behind.