While working on all user centered design we have to deal with peoples’ motivations. In many projects, an essential part is discovering them, together with their skills and strengths. This is especially important for user groups perceived to have disabilities, rather than abilities. We need to help designers think about such cases as users who are not lacking skills but who have different skills. I believe such approach can lead to better solutions. My work deals a lot with seducing and encouraging people to engage in desired behavior. Most directly in finding out what their motivations are and where to tap in order to persuade the user. Contextmapping is a very important part of it our research and my book “Convivial toolbox” outlines its methodology.

In general, my research interests revolve around three broad topics. First one is participatory design, especially involving end users in design processes to bringing their expertise and ideas. Second aspect is experimental prototyping. The main challenge here is to get the user experience into the prototype and make an interactive prototype, which allows people to assess the experience quality of the idea. The third focus of my work is the role of designing within research projects. It is connected to the other two aspects, as in both these topics we use design tools and design methods to do research and to let people speak into the design process.

As the result of my research work, we deliver tools and techniques to improve designing, widely used by our students, graduates and in the professional field.

text by Malgorzata Pawlak