Step 1: Delimit the design space

Most practical design projects require to limit and structure the design space beforehand, mainly due to limited resources in terms of time and money. In general, our approach assumes a top-down perspective (see Figure 11.2): design for wellbeing should ideally begin with ‘designing’ positive moments which are experienced within meaningful practices, and only later should it address the ‘things’ (i.e., technologies) which are required in order to shape the practice accordingly. For example, one can take a certain interest as a starting point, such as looking for ways to support couples in long-distance relationships. Such a ‘theme’ will help to focus on a group of practices, such as how couples try to feel close over a distance. This limitation reduces the research area and makes the design work more manageable. The ‘theme’ itself does not need to be justified, as long as the designers who are involved agree on its relevancy. However, in reality many technology design projects are bottom-up, that is, they start from the materials which are to be used later. For example, when designing in the context of cars, one may focus on practices related to cars. When designing a coffee machine, one may focus on practices of brewing coffee (as in our case study). In general, there is a danger of setting the limits too narrow. Thus, we always recommend broadening the scope a little further than one would typically consider given the material at hand. For example, in the context of brewing coffee, one may focus on broader practices, such as the ‘coffee klatsch’ (a spontaneous get together for having a coffee and a chat), rather than on narrow issues of, for instance, operating the coffee machine.

To familiarise oneself with the theme, initially, a number of practices from one’s own everyday life experience should be compiled, in order to get a feel for the design space. Of course, it is possible that the research area at hand is not ubiquitous and there is no connection to the designer’s personal experience. For instance, it may be difficult to name practices of parenting without the experience of being a parent. However, even in this case, culturally shared notions of practices exist. They may lack detail and may even be overly stereotypical; nevertheless, they can and should serve as a starting point for future research. If resources allow for it, a number of additional open conversations with other people outside the team may add further depth to the initial design space. Another source for practices can be found in movies or literature (Blythe & Wright, 2006). In general, the practices gathered in this first step should be as authentic as possible.

Step 2: Gather positive practices

Typically, empirical explorations of tasks and contexts which support design, attempt to answer the question of what people do and what types of problems they experience – on average. Design is then used to supposedly ‘solve’ these problems. In fact, the gap between the knowledge which is gathered through this type of analysis (e.g., average notions about the problems people have with brewing coffee) and potential solutions (e.g., new ways of brewing coffee) is wide, potentially leading to the disconnection of ‘data’ and ‘idea’ (design gap, Wood, 1997). We advocate a different strategy, namely to analyse people, we call them ‘positive practitioners’, who particularly take joy from a practice within the limits of the given theme (Step 1). Those instances of outstanding performances of positive practices in terms of need fulfilment will serve as further inspiration for the deliberate (re)design of practices.

We explore the main elements of a positive practice through applying a semi-structured interview and an in situ (re-)performance of the positive practice. To this end, we developed the positive-practice canvas (PPC) as a design-oriented, visual interview guide (see Figure 11.3). The PPC is printed on an A3 paper size format. On the one hand, it provides an overview of all relevant elements and key questions. On the other hand, it works as a notepad to document answers. As a first step, we ask participants to ‘pick a positive everyday practice, associated with the [theme]’. We then ask participants to perform the positive practice they have picked. Ideally, researchers would find themselves in the right place at the right time. As this is only rarely possible, we encourage the interviewee to act out the practice as close to the original performance as possible. Subsequently, we ask participants to go through the practice just performed before step-by-step using the PPC. In each step we ask participants to elaborate on the meaning (e.g., ‘Take a minute to think about the selected practice’, ‘Tell me why you are engaging with this practice’, ‘What is your motivation?’), the competencies (e.g., ‘What kinds of skills and knowledge are necessary to perform your practice?’), and the material (e.g., ‘What kinds of objects do you use to do this?’). From a wellbeing perspective, it is important to gather the specific meaning of a given practice which is provided by the participant. While practices can be comprised of similar materials and competencies, they can differ in the way they are performed. For instance, the act of riding a bike requires a bicycle and the skills to ride it. However, an especially competence-oriented way to ride a bike (e.g., a BMX) certainly differs from a, say, socially-oriented way (e.g., touring with friends). When trying to pinpoint the needs which are involved proves to be difficult, the guideline offers clarifying questions (based on Sheldon et al., 2001), such as: ‘When you engage in this practice, do you feel close to people important to you?’ (relatedness), or ‘… do you feel like experiencing something new?’ (stimulation). Through these questions, different types of motivations can be brought up and they may help to characterise the meaning which is experienced by the interviewee. It is advisable to first find out about the motivation which stands behind the motivation to perform a certain practice (i.e., meaning) as it helps immensely to gather information on the competencies and the materials which are needed. When talking about the materials, the interviewer must not only take material objects (e.g., tools) into focus, but also the context (e.g., location, time). In each step all three elements are present and remain connected. Thus, the PPC helps to organise, structure and elaborate all elements of a practice.

Figure 11.3  The positive-practice canvas (abstracted).

The interviewer should ensure that important information and insights are noted on the canvas (see Figure 11.4). Furthermore, the PPC is accompanied by a more traditional written guideline; both can easily be used together or as separate tools. The PPC’s overall goal is to capture the unfolding of a particularly positive performance of a practice over time, organise its content and select verbatim quotes, to make it accessible for design. It needs to be pointed out that from our experience, it is better to let participants describe different practices one after the other rather than mixing them up in one description.

Figure 11.4  A handwritten positive-practice canvas used in an interview.

In our case study we interviewed eight people who enjoy brewing coffee and gathered 17 single positive practices. P1, a 29-year-old male civil engineer, enjoys ‘coffee brewing for guests’. He wants to be a good host: ‘[…] I want to demonstrate hospitality by giving only the best to my guests.’ He creates an atmosphere of comfort and cosiness through the warmth and smell of the freshly brewed coffee. This practice is driven by the need of relatedness: he takes care of his guests, as they are important to him. For example, it is important for him not to lose contact with his guests during the practice of brewing coffee. As a result, he gives a detailed explanation, attempts to keep them in a loop and tries to make the coffee brewing process more transparent. P2, a 35-year-old female student, engages in a ‘ritualised coffee brewing’. For her, the manual coffee grinder is the most important tool in the kitchen. Grinding the beans, taking care of the coffee is a sign of taking a moment off on a busy day. P2 enjoys the ritual and the security it provides: ‘[…] it is like a holiday from daily life, a break.’ These examples show how practices can be distinguished by the major needs they fulfil. Although both practices involve the preparation of coffee, their purpose is quite different, which in turn impacts the way the practice is performed.

Step 3: Consolidate positive practices

Gathering positive practices results in a collection of distinct, individual, positive performances of practices. Depending on the number of ‘positive practitioners’ interviewed and their practices, the collection of positive practices can become large. On the one hand this is good, as it represents a substantial pool to be inspired by; on the other hand, this pool might need to be consolidated. We suggest two different strategies. One is to take the most inspiring positive practice (with a clear need fulfilment and a strong connection between all elements) and to use it as anecdotal input for design. The other is to further consolidate the gathered positive practices.

We suggest the above can be consolidated by grouping practices which are similar in terms of their meaning (i.e., needs fulfilled) (see above). This results in bundles of practices with the same meaning populating the same design space (in our case, to brew coffee). Similar practices are not ‘averaged’, but rather accumulated to enrich the designer’s understanding through different combinations of competencies and materials leading to a similar meaning. The overall aim is to gain an understanding of the underlying pattern of a practice. A tool that may assist in consolidating is an accumulation chart, a simple table. The idea of the chart is to compare the individual PPCs and their elements. Each row of the table represents an individual positive practice, since the unit of the analysis is the practice and not to be confused with the individual practitioner. Columns of the chart start with the title of the practice, the name or code of the contributing participant, the meaning and the ascribed need, the competencies and finally the materials which are involved. Here it is helpful to highlight needs by using different colours. The difference between raw data and processed data needs to be apparent (see Figure 11.5 for an exemplary accumulation chart).

Figure 11.5  An exemplary accumulation chart. Assigned meaning, i.e., needs, are colour-coded.

In our case study of brewing coffee, 17 positive practices were copied into an accumulation chart and sorted into three bundles of shared meaning. The first bundle, labelled ‘brewing a coffee as a ritual’, describes practices that fulfil the need of security and highlights the actual process of brewing a coffee and the positivity of a repetitive action. For instance, P1 characterises brewing coffee as a morning routine, that is, a fixed procedure that ensures that every day starts with a good coffee. For him, timing plays an important role. He mentioned: ‘I boil water while taking a shower. Thus, I can make a coffee right after showering.’ P1 experiences the efficiency, the interlocking of different activities, as positive. P3 describes a further security practice. She likes to brew a coffee in a way to always achieve the same quality: ‘[…] without my [particularly] coffee it is not a real start of the day.’ The second bundle of shared meaning is to ‘brew a coffee in a professional way’. It addresses the need for competence. A third bundle is ‘brewing a coffee for others’ (a relatedness practice).

Examining practices with similar meanings in a similar design space focuses as well as broadens the perspective on what people do and feel within a practice. In all of the three examples, the practice of preparing coffee helps the participants to feel competent, to feel safe and to feel related. Moreover, the particular needs stay the same, but the ways to fulfil these needs vary. The different practices of preparing coffee with the same goal of satisfying needs provide inspiring ways to design for different competencies and materials.

Step 4: Design ideal practices

Practices have a narrative structure: they unfold linearly over time through their performance. However, even very positive performances are not always ideal. The purpose of this step is to write a story about how an ideal performance of a practice in terms of need fulfilment may unfold over time. Furthermore, Step 4 offers the possibility of including authentic research findings in the design process and making those insights traceable at the same time.

Take an anecdotal practice or an accumulated positive practice bundle as a starting point for the story. Do not simply recount what was gathered in Step 2 but create your own envisioned practice out of the existing material. Start adding ideas of how to improve psychological need fulfilment which fit the elements given. To be clear, this is not a further step of analysis, but already an act of design. The ideal practice narrative’s purpose is to envision practices that should emerge through using the yet-to-be-specified products and/or services with the help of insights from the gathered positive practices. At best, the resulting narratives represent a realistic and rich description of how a future positive practice should unfold in everyday life.

The ideal practice serves as a reference for the later specification of the ‘material’. It allows revisiting the initial idea (as a reference) as well as giving to answer the crucial question of whether the created product or service is able to shape the envisioned practice and experiences.

The following guideline helps to structure the narrative and to keep all necessary elements in view:

• Context. Describe the situation in which the practice is placed through time, location and related previous and following events.
• People. Introduce the acting practitioners who engage in the practice by age, gender, profession (if necessary), personality and other relevant elements of their life-world.
• Motivation. State why the practitioner engages in the practice. Clarify the personal meaning of the practice and describe how the practice fulfils the needs.
• Interaction. Describe in detail how the practice unfolds over time. Describe all single activities and meaningful moments. Emotions and thoughts of your practitioner should be as detailed as possible. Use quotes from Step 2 to make it as authentic as possible. Keep the material vague. The narrative should focus on the interaction as if the material already existed.
• Happy ending. Summarise the whole practice and make sure that your practitioner is happy and satisfied because of performing the practice. Describe the final state of the practitioner.

The author should stay positive throughout the whole narrative. A narrative of an ideal practice avoids all traces of a pejorative undertone and should not be negative or sarcastic. The story makes the practice accessible to others. To be sure, the narrative does not have to be a written story. Animated cartoons, storyboards (see Figure 11.6), theatre plays or videos are also ways to tell a story. They help people to understand the narrative based on additional visual information. Another advantage of, for example, video as a format, is that the speed and duration of the narrative can be better controlled. However, videos and cartoons need time and resources to prepare. This extra portion of effort does not automatically make a difference and can even make it more complicated. For example, video will inevitably show details unimportant to the story but nevertheless likely to grab attention, while written stories generally allow for a much better control of distracting detail (also see Diefenbach et al., 2010).

Figure 11.6  Excerpt of the Coffee-Love narrative. Note that the original story is more extensive, and more images are included in the storyboard.

For our case study, three narratives were created. Coffee-Love is a narrative based on brewing a coffee as a ritual, predominantly fulfilling a need for routine and relaxation (i.e., security). The second narrative, called Experto, is based on brewing a coffee in a professional way and addresses the need for competence. The third narrative, called Share-Co, is based on brewing a coffee for others and tells the story of experiencing relatedness. Undeniably, the number of narratives and the number of bundles of shared meaning match unintentionally. Based on the three bundles of shared meanings, more narratives would be possible and even beneficial. For a brief example of an ideal practice narrative, see Figure 11.6.

Narratives of ideal practices can be evaluated easily by potential users. Positive practitioners from the interviews can be revisited and asked to comment on the stories. This input can be used to improve the narrative further.

Step 5: Specify the material to shape the ideal practice

So far, the material that was used to formulate the ideal practice narratives was deliberately left vague. In the fifth step, the material is specified, based on the narratives. In other words, the ‘design problem’ is specified by the material (i.e., product, service) in a way that it will evoke and shape the practice through the functionality and interaction offered.

To generate concepts for analogue or digital products and services is the heart of the design practitioners’ work. Most design agencies or companies follow their own processes of how concepts should be generated. Thus, this step does not include a formal guideline or tool. We believe that designers and developers are far better off using their own processes and the procedures they are experienced with. However, we suggest that people involved in the creative process should familiarise themselves with the narratives and understand them as the objective and reference for their design work. At best, people participate in the design, who also conducted the interviews and developed the narratives. All in all, designers involved in this step should be able to relate to the narratives and use their capacity for empathy to create a ‘material’ able to evoke the practice.

In our case study, six coffee machines were created. Figure 11.7 presents the concepts and a short description of the design rationales and intended need fulfilment.

Figure 11.7  Six concepts (two per narrative) that try to fit into and evoke the corresponding narrative.

Step 6: Realise the material

In the previous steps, meaning and competence (Step 4) and the material (Step 5) were combined in a particular way to create an ideal practice. In the final step, the actual material is realised. This requires a specialised set of design skills, depending on the used material (e.g., particular technologies), which is beyond the scope of the present chapter. Keep in mind, that the design narrative itself no longer matters, as the material has to tell the narrative through its experiential qualities, functionality and detailed interaction – i.e., on its own. Step 5 represents the bridge between wellbeing and products/services we were looking for. The second version of the ideal practice narrative presents an integrated story, material, emerging practices and experiences together, as one interdependent unit. But while the material remains tangible and consistent, the practices and experiences are intangible and need to be reproduced through situated performances in everyday life. We believe that the process that is described in this chapter supports the inscribing of the practice and especially its meaning into the material. If the material is used in an intended situation, it will help to achieve a result which is as close as possible to the desired ideal in a practice-as-performance situation. As a result, this process can be supported by additional information given to potential users about the envisioned practice. In this respect, the ideal practice narrative can be used further as a reference document for marketing or any related purpose in an industrial setting.