- I had a very emotional experience at the dialogue in the dark. At first when I arrived, I didn’t really know what to expect or what we were going to do. We started out with the puzzle task and it was such a weird feeling trying to do the kids puzzle with the help from others and having such a hard time to fit the pieces together. At this point I really started to use more of my other senses. I had to touch the pieces and feel them to be able to put them in the right direction. After that the walk started and I had to use my senses even more. It was really hard walking around in total darkness, not being able to see anything. In the beginning I felt so limited and was very careful taking the steps forward, but after a while I got more comfortable with it, even though it was really hard. It was a bit scary, but I really trusted our guide and followed her voice. When I navigated my way around it helped a lot with touching the wall or other items along the way and also listening carefully for all the sounds around me. It gave me a totally new perspective of exploring things without being able to see. It was really cool walking through so many different surroundings and using all the other senses to figure out where we were. I realized how much the feel and texture of things make a difference, and also thought more of how I could describe something without being able to see it. After this walk I felt so blessed to be able to actually see and realized that it isn’t something I should take for granted.
- Some of the benefits inherent in the design research technique of roleplaying:
- See things from another perspective.
- Understand that people can think of things in a total different way than you.
- Understand how you can try explaining your idea to someone else.
- Some contexts that role-playing can be useful in:
- When you want to try out if the design solution is a good one.
- When you’re designing something for a target group that you’re not a part of yourself, especially if the target group has very different qualities compared to you.
- To try out in what cases a solution works.
- When you want something to be available to as many people as possible.
- When you want to deliver very important information in the society.