Probe to Learn, Probe to Design

摘要

Probes provide a powerful way of exploring a space. Bill Gaver and his colleagues gave people in elderly communities small packages of beautiful maps, cameras, and postcards that could be mailed back with intimate fragments of life. They probed for glimpses of local culture to inspire their design process. David Kirsh observed how ballet choreographers make small body movements in ways that at first blush look irrelevant to the task. The choreographer's seemingly random shoulder shrug turns out to be quite intentional. They recruit their bodies to perform "epistemic actions"-dynamic probes-to visualize and feel movement possibilities.