Between generative prototyping and work of synthesis in design: Interplay and adding value in the early concept development

The paper analyzes a case in which generative prototypes are applied as part of a participatory design methodology to elicit insights from practitioners, and how these insights are translated and represented, to inform the following work of synthesis in design. In literature, arguments are made for the value of involving practitioners as active participants in the development process, which holds the potential to develop innovative products.

The paper unfolds a discussion on how knowledge from different sources can be qualified and re-qualified through a methodology of generative iterations, creating a valuable interplay between participatory sessions and background development work. Through an empirical study, it is analyzed how this can be achieved through intermediate methods informing decisions in design to be made based on practitioner wishes and desires, but necessitating re-qualification through iterations.

The paper concludes, that the methodology can frame a process of eliciting explicit and implicit knowledge from different sources, but that the designer, as being part of the entire process, comes to hold ‘sticky’ knowledge that difficult to transfer, which implicitly influences the design process. It is considered how such brokering of knowledge by the designer can have a role in the further downstream of product development.