As a method for designing innovative products and services, we focus on the co-design process, in which design projects are carried out with users and various stakeholders.

The Design Process with Living Lab

The "living lab," a place to design with stakeholders, has attracted attention in recent years as a design method for innovation. The Living Lab is a method of creating in a natural environment with real users while confirming the usefulness and continuity of ideas. Our laboratory is researching the design process using the Living Lab as a place to realize an innovative design with the involvement of the people involved. We are attempting to approach the Living Lab from various angles, including developing practical tools, creating mechanisms, and creating communities.
 

Co-Creation Workshop Design

We are researching ways to design measures for communicating regional attractions through co-creation between tourists and local stakeholders for regional development. We invented the idea of a "mapping workshop" based on the hypothesis that tourists could discover the charms of a region by creating a map of the area in an unfamiliar place, enabling tourism with a story to be told. That buried regional resources could be utilized. Prototype testing of the idea was conducted in Sakura City, Chiba Prefecture. The city has many attractions, including historical buildings and abundant nature, but these attractions must be fully recognized as tourism resources. The prototype of the mapping workshop was tested here to ensure it's effective and to address more issues.

Co-design with Extreme Users

As a design project in the seminar, we are practicing co-creation design with extreme users (visually impaired and wheelchair users). Using design research methods, we observed and interviewed people with disabilities in their daily lives, and the seminar students themselves discovered the issues they faced. In a shopping street near the university, the students were allowed to experience walking in the shopping street and shopping at a store together, observing their ingenuity and difficulties and deciphering the essence of their problems through interviews and other methods. They then created a design prototype using an Arduino to solve the issues they discovered and had the target visually impaired people experience the prototype and provide feedback.