A framework for naming your relationship to the people you're designing for — because "the user" is never just one relationship, and the difference between designing for, with, and as someone changes what you're allowed to assume.
Drawing on Fila et al. (2014) and Hynes & Swenson (2013), this framework splits "who is this for" into three distinct relational stances. You can design for a group you're not part of, with people as active collaborators, or as a way of designing from your own lived experience and values. Most real projects mix all three — naming which one you're in at any moment keeps you honest about what you actually know versus what you're assuming.
Each stance carries a different obligation — and a different way you can go wrong.
Designing for people whose experience you don't share — a different age group, ability, background, or role than your own. The obligation is humility: don't assume you already know what they need.
Designing alongside people as active collaborators — teammates, co-designers, stakeholders with their own expertise. The obligation is shared authorship, not just consultation.
Designing from your own identity, values, and lived experience — when you are, in some real sense, the person you're designing for. The obligation is honesty about what's personal versus universal.
The clearest example built so far in the course — how the three lenses land on one real project. Images to come for each.
An audience unfamiliar with MDE — the squirrel has to make sense and feel welcoming to someone who's never heard of the program.
Teammates from across concentrations, each bringing different skills to the same build — the squirrel only comes together as shared work.
Your own personal values and taste — the squirrel is also a class-identity object, so part of it is designed from what you personally want it to say.
Three questions to ask about anything you're building, at any stage.
Who am I designing for that I'm not, and what am I still assuming about their experience instead of asking?
Who's actually shaping this decision alongside me, and are they a real collaborator or just someone I checked in with?
What part of this comes from my own experience or values — and am I being honest about where that stops applying to someone else?
Fila et al., "Engineering For, With, or As People?" (2014); Hynes & Swenson (2013).