It’s been fun to have Danila Zindato, a PhD student with the Department of Design of the Polytechnic University of Milan, visit with us over the summer as a Visiting Scholar. Her research is focused on the role of scenarios in design and foresight. Designers use scenarios in the design process, but usually or different purposes and a different way than futurists typically do. For instance,designers use an abductive sensemaking process in which they organize, evaluate and filter data, producing new knowledge in different ways according to their target, their tools and the available resources. They help the creative process around a design “target,” whereas one might say the futurists more often use scenarios to map the landscape around a future topic (which sometimes includes a design target).
Danila had been developing a conceptual process model that explores the different roles and positioning of scenarios into the design processes. She is aiming to create a “systematization” among approaches and tools. This scenario framework will facilitate the development of a specific toolkit that is adaptable to different situations.
She recently presented some of her research to date — DESIGNING FUTURE SCENARIOS Approaches and Positioning of Scenario Building into the Design Process— at the World Conference of Futures Research meeting in Turku, Finland. It’s been great to have her here with us in Houston! Her contact info is: danila.zindato@polimi.it — Andy Hines
