1. Design Scripts
Designing (inter)action with intent
DesignThis! – Bas Leurs (December 2, 2010)

2. My ambition: to understand how
designers think and how they can
improve their processes to make
better and meaningful products
INPUT
OUTPU
T

3. Remember Charlie ‘The
Philosopher’ Mulholland?

4. Bruno Latour’s scripts
Latour’s concept for describing
the mediation of action by
artifacts is called a ‘script’.
Like the script of a movie or a
atour
runo L
theatre play, an artifact can B
‘prescribe’ its users how to act
when they use it.

5. This lecture has also a script
You walk in
You look for you favourite spot
You sit down
Take your notebook
Listen to the lecture
Make notes
Applause
Leave the auditorium
Write a review

6. Examples of scripts
Speed bumps, the script
is: ‘Slow down!’

7. Examples of scripts
Paper coffee cup, the
script is: ‘dispose me
after use’

8. John Chris Jones on
the objectives of a
designer
In Design Methods (1970)
“The designer must be able to
predict the ultimate effects of
their proposed design as well as
specifying the actions that are
needed to bring these effects
about.”

9. Which one would you buy?

10. You’ll find scripts throughout the life of a product
Conception Manufacturing Distribution Sales Installation Maintenance Disposal
Selling it to Should be Should be Should catch Should be easy Should be easy Should be
the client possible and lightweight the attention to install clean and good for the
Building cheap to of the buyer replace the environment
prototypes produce and bulb?
easy to How can it be
assemble repaired when
it breaks?

11. Examples of scripts
Striping of Dutch
Police cars

12. Examples of scripts
Striping of Dutch Police cars:
Roadblocks, visual presence,
applicable to many vehicles

13. Examples of scripts
Password strength indicator

14. Examples of scripts
Password strength indicator:
Persuade or challenge people
to select a safe password

15. Examples of scripts
Wii

16. Examples of scripts
Wii: playing together and
moving instead of sitting
on a couch?

17. I consider scripts a bit like ‘Automator’ scripts
With a sequence of actions

18. The designer has intentions
how the artefact should
interact with its user(s)
and context.

20. A design script intends to
affect the user behaviour
(or mind) in a predictive
way.

21. You will find the
principles of scripts
in many fields
Cognition &
Economics &
Political Sciences Schemata theory
Event schemata (Scripts)
Choice architecture Usecues Mandler, Schank & Abelson
Richard Thaler, Cass Sunstein, Kanis, Rooden, A ordances
John Balz Green Donald Norman Behavioural Scripts
Craig Anderson
Usability Cognitive structures
In uencing public of knowledge
behaviour
Legislation Error prevention,
ease of use
Architectures of control
Lawrence Lessig
Education
In uencing public
behaviour
Persuasive Intervention scripts
Barnett, Bauer, Bell, et al
technology
Acquisition of knowledge,
Persuasive technology
skills and values
BJ Fogg
Design with
Philosophy Intent
Dan Lockton Game
‘Enscription of artefacts’
Bruno Latour, Madeleine Akrich
Design
Change attitudes or behaviors Serious games
through persuasion
How technology a ects Educating, training and
peoples life developing behaviour ,
mindsets

22. But scripts can go wrong...

23. I believe that there
are also human
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24. Scripts can be disruptive...
Disrupting other scripts

25. Scripts can be discruptive...
Disrupting other scripts

26. Or scripts can be misplaced

27. Or scripts can be misplaced

28. Elements of scripts
Objective (intention) Context (Scene)
Artefact (Product) Sequence of (inter)actions Actor (User)

29. How I tend to design?

30. Design as learning
“As a designer you gradually
gather knowledge about the
nature of the design problem
and the best routes to take
towards a design solution. “
Kees Dorst in ‘Understanding Design’ (2003)

31. John Chris Jones on
the problems of a
designer
In Design Methods (1970)
“The fundamental problem is
that designers are obliged to
use current information to
predict a future state that will
not come about unless their
predictions are correct.”

32. Kolb Learning Cycle
Learning from Experiencing a phenomena
external phenomena
Feeling
Doing an intervention What do I feel
see, hear, taste,
Doing Reviewing
smell etc.?
Thinking
Understanding the phenomena, drawing conclusions
What does it mean?

33. Kolb Learning Cycle
Learning from internal My gut feeling
mental processes
Feeling
Evaluating my feelings
Running a scenario:
“What do I feel?”
Envisioning the intervention Reviewing
Doing
“What if...?”
Thinking
Understanding my feelings, contemplating my intentions,
definition of objectives
n of
“Why, how. what?”
C onceptio
a script

34. Why this learning process is
important
Trending topics
Design as Value Creation
Design to fuel Innovation
For example:
Service Design
Transformation design
We design for a world where technology is becoming more
and more complex and more integrated in our daily lives
Design is becoming more holistic, less tangible and a
product of multidisciplinairy teamwork.

35. My best tip...
In order to predict the outcome of
your design (the behaviour it
invokes), you have to learn about
‘the world’ (context, user behaviour,
technology).
But learning is not enough, the make
the outcome of your design
predictable, you also have to make
simple and robust scripts.

36. Have fun with
scripting!