A5AberleHenrikson

A5AberleHenrikson

To-Do

1. Please work as a group (minimum: 2 members; max: 6 members — discuss the answers between your group members) and submit one answer as a group (clearly identifying the members of your group)
2. Choose a web site and claim it as yours by editing the list on the Meta-Design Sites page (first come – first served)

Describe your understanding of meta-design in your own words (not copying a paragraph from a paper or a website)

Meta-Design is a design methodology in which the design process does not cease once the product or tool has been released by the developer. It is a dynamic process that continues long after release by the users of the product themselves. Meta-Designed tools provide resources in which users can make design decisions to alter the product so that it may better fit their specific needs. This involves allowing users to both modify the content and the functionality of the product. In some cases, meta-designed products may be intentionally underdesigned, as all needs of the users cannot be accurately anticipated during the initial design. When properly implemented, this results in a dynamic product that is constantly evolving to fit the needs of its end-users.

This is like participatory design (that we talked about last week) in the way that they both have the developers interact and get ideas from the end-users.  It differs from participatory design because it allows for the end-users to change the product after the release.  An example of meta-design is wikipedia.com is a product that was developed so that end-users (anyone and everyone) can change the content and share information with everyone.  Whereas an example of participatory design could be an online encyclopedia where the developers get ideas during development from the end-users about what they want on it, but then the developers make it, release it and that's that.  If something needs to be changed in the design, the developers would have to go back and change it, because the end-users have no control over the content.

Setting: you are talking to another student who is interested in design; how would you explain to her/him the strengths and weakness of meta-design as a design methodology

Which Web site did you select?

http://www.patientslikeme.com/

Analyze your chosen web site from a meta-design perspective:

PatientsLikeMe is a Web 2.0 social networking site aimed at helping people that have been diagnosed with serious and life-changing illnesses. The site allows patients to communicate with one another to help them cope with their condition as well as provide potentially useful treatment information about what has and has not been working for other users. It was founded in 2005 when the brother of two men was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gherig's Disease). They realized there was a need for community support and information for people in similar circumstances.
The site acts as a framework for the user base to generate content. This is where it shines particularly strongly as an example of meta-design. The administrators of the site do not create the profiles of users, nor populate them with data. Each participant is individually motivated to provide their own information to share with others. The operators of the site do not dictate how it should be used. The participants are self-motivated by the desire to both seek help regarding their conditions as well as give support and information that might be helpful to others.
The site is organized into separate "communities." Each community contains users separated by their diagnosed illnesses. Currently, there are nine separate communities for prevalent diseases, as well as some smaller communities for rarer diseases. Each community page consists of statistics and information that has been gathered entirely through data shared by the patients in that community. This data updates in near real time as people change and add new information to their profiles.
More detailed information is located in each user's profile page. The profile page is a sub-page of the main site that is entirely created by the user. This is where meta-design elements are again prevalent. The extent to which the users choose to provide data is entirely up to them; they are responsible for generating the information about themselves, their condition, and the treatments that have been using. PatientsLikeMe simply acts as a framework on which the users can create and develop their online presence.
The information provided by users creates extremely detailed graphs and charts that outline specific treatments and symptoms experienced by each patient. This information can in turn be used by other participants and even physicians and researchers. Patients can use the site to learn about what to expect from the experiences of people in similar situations as well as seeing what treatment plans were the most effective. Researchers can also use the information to help shape care for people with diseases and learn more about the diseases themselves.

A chart outlining the timeline of an ALS patient's symptoms
While this site abounds in resources for patients to generate content, it doesn't contain any resources for users to alter the functionality of the application. While in some circumstances, this may inconvenience users, on a site like PatientsLikeMe it would seem like overkill. Over-complicating the generation of user content could potentially detract from the important focus of the site. If a circumstance arises in which users feel like they need some increased design flexibility, the site has an area where users may suggest features or give other feedback.

Please provide the names of your group members who contributed to this answer.

Nick Aberle, Bethany Henrikson
Works Cited

Metadesign, Wikipedia.org - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metadesign)

PatientsLikeMe - (http://www.patientslikeme.com/)

PatientsLikeMe, Wikipedia.org - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PatientsLikeMe)

Meta-Design: Expanding Boundaries and Redistributing Control in Design, by Gerhard Fischer -(http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/~gerhard/papers/Interact-2007.pdf)