Humanizing Design through Narrative Inquiry

ABSTRACT An increasing number of practice-based disciplines are embracing narrative inquiry as a powerful means of teaching the more intangible, human-centered issues of professional practice. While the field of design has a long history of using narrative metaphorically—that is, creating designs that tell a story—less emphasis has been placed on examining the potential of narrative as design method—as a tool for exploring ideas and guiding decisions throughout the various stages of the design process. This article examines the potential benefits of a narrative inquiry in a studio setting on design process and product. The authors present findings from an exploratory study in which twenty-eight senior level interior design students formally integrated narrative (storytelling) into three different phases of their creative design process: Programming, Conceptualization, and Presentation. The studio setting became a laboratory for exploring the unique qualities of narrative method in relation to more traditional 2-D and 3-D design methods. Personal insights and self-reported changes in thinking were collected, indicating how the students perceived the impact of the narrative intervention upon their design inquiry, design decisions, and quality of work. A content analysis of the written reflections of the students revealed that designing with stories resulted in a transformative learning experience that encouraged a deeply humanized design process by nurturing empathy, enhancing multi-sensory conceptualization and visualization, and facilitating holistic designing. Summary The purpose of this investigation was to explore narrative inquiry as a design method in the studio classroom. Based on self-reported changes in design process and product, findings suggested that narrative method was a driving force in promoting a heightened sense of user empathy, enhanced multi-sensory conceptualization and visualization, and a greater tendency towards holistic thinking. This was true for each of the phases of the design process In which narrative method was applied: Programming, Concept Development, and Presentation. In addition, each of the three modes of narrative — reading, writing, and sharing stories — appeared to be an effective complement to traditional 2-D and 3-D methods, providing students with a mechanism to explore not only aesthetic design considerations, but also emotional connections to the user experience. The study revealed several unique qualities that arose when utilizing narrative as design method, most importantly the ability of narrative to help students shift their focus from an aesthetic consideration of the design and a focus on product to an emotional connection with the design and a focus on the person. Constructing stories helped students reposition themselves as user advocates, embrace multiple perspectives of user experience, and build a community of respect In the studio. How that evolution of student perspective translates into design performance is not yet understood. The social call of contemporary design places designers in a position that demands a greater focus on the human-centered issues of designing. Ideally, design serves society and is embedded withIn it. This realization continues to push design paradigms and methods beyond those traditionally centered around material artifacts. As design moves toward an evolving, systems-based view, that encompasses not only artifacts, but also social values, the individual, and the collective processes that lie at the heart of the creation, new methods are necessary to enable designers to heighten their understanding of different human experiences of space. Because narratives possess a unique ability to give meaning to human experience, they provide the designer with a promising tool to explore and communicate a totality of design experience as a fluid sequence of time and space. By building our narrative competence as designers, we will be building the deep, interpretive abilities needed to humanize our design process, enhance our interpersonal communication, and develop a greater understanding of the human-centered issues of professional practice.