Role expectations and relationships in co- operative design projects
Ann Lantz, Jari Räsänen, Per‐Anders Forstorp · 2005
In this paper, we focus on role expectations and relationships in co-operative design projects. Our research questions are: How are the different roles experienced and understood by the different actors in co-operative design projects? How do we as researchers act and use methods in the perspective of research and in the perspective of design? Can designer be equivalent to researcher or are these roles always separated? Our results are based on analyzing material from field studies performed in the project Community at a distance. The results show that the user (employee) sees no differences between the role of a researcher and the role of a designer. Meanwhile, the researchers are increasingly expected to take the role of a designer, with or without the proper training and skills. The influences of these changes on participatory design are discussed.