Reviewing Design Movement Towards the Collective Computing Era

Abstract

This paper aims to envision design activities –design task, design process, and designer–for the collective computing era, an upcomingdominance of applications where many people interact with each other through many computing devices(Abowd, 2016). To achieve this aim, thetypical design activities over the last two computing eras, personal and ubiquitous, are studied through a literature review. Based on the activities shift discovered there, new design activities for collective computing are envisioned. This study urgesdesigners to change the way to work with user-data: from referring the small but in-depth ethnographical user-centeredliving-lab data (during the ubiquitous computing era), to create an understanding about both the individual user and the society or crowd as a whole(collective computing era). These different types of data provide designers with a rich understanding on the usersin their contexts, both as individual and community levels. Also, the design process that authors envision is a process of co-exploration (merge of problem exploration and solution delivery), and co-evolution (the constant reflection back and forth with exchange of information) of design problem and solution spaces. Moreover, the designersin collective computing erahave to take ethical and privacyissues into account. They have to create plans for dealing with the uncontrollability of the data generated and uncertainty about the social impact of the design that come with it. This research cantrigger the designers to innovate and remodel their workat the forefront of new computing technologies.