Contextmapping in primary design and technology education: a fruitful method to develop empathy for and insight in user needs

Abstract

Human-centered design is of growing importance for professional designers and in the past two decades a series of techniques for designers to develop understanding of and empathy with a diversity of users has been developed within this field. In the second half of the twentieth century, intended users were involved late in the design process, i.e. during the testing of products or prototypes. More recently, the user is involved in the early phases, when the direction is set. Users have rich local contextual knowledge and can work together with professional designers. Although these techniques are now entering mainstream design education at the university level, they have not yet reached Design and Technology Education in primary and secondary schools. Most teachers do not yet provide opportunities for pupils to conduct research to uncover the needs, wishes, and experiences of specific user groups. However, this understanding of users belongs in D&T education, because artifacts have a dual nature: a physical and an intentional nature. In this paper we describe a Contextmapping method for pupils (aged 9–12 years) and illustrate this with a design project. The assignment for the pupils was to “design a playground in which children and elderly people are active together” in which the pupils developed an understanding of elderly people through Contextmapping.