What i know about social design and how i have engaged with social design What is social design to me? Social design is about creating with or for a community. ItÕs about creating design through dialogue where ideas, belifs and rituals should be discussed in order to design a solution or an object that benefits or helps a group of people. The designer should be able to connect with a community in a way, where the designer fully understand the communitys request(s) and need for change or a smarter solution. Social design is about humans, not the society. From my personal experience, i have learned about the importantness of social design, from working at an institution for disabled children, throughout and after my years in highschool. The residents at the institution called Tj¿rringhus are all multihandicapped children between 4 and 18 years old. They need constant support, including personal hygine, feeding, getting in clothes, brushing teeth etc. In order to help the child through its daily chores, as easily as possible, my coworkers and i, where deeply dependent on the resources and tool remedys we had. The same were the residents! Those resources were specially designed, to make daily life as convinient for both staff and residents, such as the childrens adjustable wheelchairs and lifts to move the child around and special designed cars, where wheelchairs would fit in perfectly, and could be secured safely. All of these indispensable resources have been made in close cooperation with designers, who have visited the institution, met the residents, experienced their daily needs, talked with the childrens parents, had talks and discussions with the staff at Tj¿rringhus. From those talks and experiences, the designeres have been able to make the best possible sollutions for both the residents and the staff working for and with the children. The institution were at one point, over a period of one year where i was working full-time, involeved with a danish design school, who made a project about social design and designing social relations. The aim of the project was to give the residents at Tj¿rringhus more and better relationships with the surrounding community. Neighbors, family, friends, and volunteers should be involved in the project and inspired and well dressed to take co-responsibility for their fellow citizens, at Tj¿rringhus. So in that way it was not only the public represented by the employees on the institution, who should be responsible for the citizensÕ social relations. The result of the project, was a great succes. In fact the residents at Tj¿rringhus, now got more relationships, in the form of volunteers, taking the residents to activities and arranging activities in the home. In this way the institution has become a part of society and society a part of the institution. The more volunteers have also given the employees of Tj¿rringhus more time, which they can use on residents who need extra support. I felt it myself, while working on Tj¿rringhus. It was a huge opportunity for us, as imployees to have more time with an individual child and get to give the child caring attention while doing activities. The methodes that were used by the designers, that i understood, and the other staff got to know, while the project was ongoing was; - Empathize, where the designers create understanding for the user. - Define where the designer formulate insights and find an understanding of recognized and unrecognized needs and longings. - Idea where the designer draw up as many ideas and suggestions as possible in several different directions. - Prototype, where the designer build a model or kind of tale of the change they want to introduce. - Test where the model is put into a context and evaluated by the users. As part of the process, the designers completed field studies at Tj¿rringhus. Through a month, citizens and employees attended the home to gain knowledge and gain an understanding of their respective situations, challenges, wishes and needs. Based on field studies, the designers developed a number of so-called "social prototypes"; ideas for social relations with the residents and ways to create them. The prototypes were tested on stakeholders and further developed into the unifying concept: "Guest Bud" - How do you receive guests and how will you be a good guest at Tj¿rringhus? With the "Guest Bud" as a starting point, the designers developed three solutions: - A communication tool for Ipad for the children on Tj¿rringhus. The tool allows the residents to present and tell about themselves. The residens at Tj¿rringhus have no language and therefore can not present themselves in a "normal" way. The ipad can always be used by the resident and they can then start an interaction - and a relationship. A tool we ended up having great use of at Tj¿rringhus. It gave the children the opportunity to explain themselves in a way, that havenÕt been possible for the children before. - An activity tool for employees and guests at Tj¿rringhus, which shows what activities and forms of interaction that are meaningful for relatives and outsiders to involve the resident. The childs handicaps require that you as a guest find ways to be with the them in addition to the usual Ôeveryday talkÕ. Lots of volunteers who, as mentioned, involved the residents in activities in society and involve society in activities with the children at Tj¿rringhus. The designers found several ways to do this, but what we ended up using the most was a simpel solution with ideas for activities in a big box, that were special made, in colaboration with the designers, and some pedagouges working at Tj¿rringhus. This experience of being a part of this project, or at least be able to stand on the sideline, observing how the project evolved and included both residents, staff at Tj¿rringhus and volunteers showed me the importantness of social design and designing for and with people to improve their lifequality.