/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// DESIGNER EXPERIENCE - DESIGNING IN EXPERIENCE Mika P. Nieminen and Mikael Runonen Aalto University School of Science mika.nieminen@aalto.fi, mikael.runonen@aalto.fi ABSTRACT In this paper, we introduce a new paradigm for performing user-centered product or service design on an experiential level. We call this approach Designer Experience, meaning design activity that takes place within an experiential system similar to the one that the eventual product or service will be used in. After a brief discussion of the inadequacies of user-centred design and experience in general, we explore the various aspects of Designer Experience and the ways to invoke it. A case study regarding the representation of users’ contextual systems to designers is presented. Our experiences with the UCD Holodeck system acted as an inspiration for the definition of Designer Experience and as a validation in order to illustrate one potential path towards Designer Experience. Keywords: User-Centred Design, user experience, designer experience. INTRODUCTION User-Centered Design (UCD) has proven itself suitable for the creation of solutions that meet users’ needs and wishes, with well-established integration into the technical, competence and even legal requirements gathering processes. For the majority of UCD methods, there is an assumption that reliable information about users can be collected. The nature of this information is rational, meaning that there are clear reasons for users’ behaviors and needs. This is also an assumption that a user can directly or indirectly explain her actions and attitudes or that this information can be found through user studies. This confines the most important UCD stakeholders, both the user and the designer, to the domain of predictability. The current effort to move beyond this deductive predictability has strengthened the adoption of user experience (UX) as the new defining aspect of product and service design. UX provides room for solutions that touch the emotional, experiential world of the user. More design-oriented approaches, such as generative tools, emotional design and cultural probes aim to externalize the users’ hidden needs by allowing them to participate in the creative process alongside the designers. The major drawback is that the knowledge gained from the users is often fragmented: facts, insights and interpretations provided by the users. Next, this user-generated input must be re- interpreted by the designer in order to build the rationale for design. Wouldn’t it be better for the designers to perform their design work directly within the users’ experiential system, without these layers of double or triple interpretation? In this paper we outline a new paradigm called Designer Experience (DX), a way to perform design in experience, not for experience. BEYOND PREDICTABILITY There is an unconditional necessity for prediction in almost all product development. For complex systems, development cycles may stretch out for years, and over such a time period, user attitudes, use contexts and even some user needs may change. This forces designers and decision-makers to make educated guesses about forthcoming conditions.