I created the following guidelines for me and my teaching partner:
“Who do I imagine when I imagine a user?”
Date: 21.11.25
Duration: 1.5–2 hours
Format: Studio-based session
Participants: 15 Students (Stage 2 and Stage 3 BA Architecture)
Context: Design Studio: Social / affordable housing retrofit
Materials
- Students’ portfolio page with three speculative user profiles
- Visual representations of users prepared in advance (fictional images, drawings, collages)
- A3 paper (spare)
- Pens / markers
- Post-its
- Screen
1. Welcome and framing (5–10 minutes)
Purpose:
To establish a shared ethical framework and set expectations for the session.
Key points to communicate verbally:
- “Today we are going to pause design work and focus on how we imagine people different from ourselves.”
- “This session is not about assessing your work or correcting it.”
- “Because we are working with social and affordable housing, how we imagine users carries ethical weight.”
- “You are not required to disclose anything personal. Fictionalisation, abstraction, and distance are welcome.”
Tone to establish:
- Exploratory rather than critical
- Reflective rather than corrective
- Collective learning rather than individual judgement
2. Individual warm-up: rereading speculative users (5 minutes)
Ask students to quietly reread the three speculative user profiles they have prepared, alongside the visual material they brought to represent them.
Invite them to annotate:
- What feels grounded or well-researched?
- Where might this profile need more nuance?
- Where am I assuming, simplifying, or generalising?
3. Small-group sharing (15–20 minutes)
Students work in groups of three or four.
Each student briefly introduces their three users and accompanying visual material
(approximately 2 minutes per set).
Encourage them to focus on:
- Who the person or household is (composition, work conditions, care roles)
- What everyday spatial practices are implied
- What constraints or challenges shape daily life
- How the visual representation supports (or simplifies) the narrative
Guidance for group discussion:
- Ask clarifying questions, not evaluative ones.
- Focus on understanding the user, not judging accuracy.
- Consider whether identity categories meaningfully shape lived experience or function as surface labels.
Tutors circulate and observe without intervening.
4. Group reflection activity (15 minutes)
Distribute Post-its.
Ask students to respond individually to:
“What surprised you, or challenged your assumptions, in someone else’s users?”
Students write 2–3 short notes and place them on a shared surface.
As they do so, tutors observe recurring themes.
Once all Post-its are placed:
- Group similar comments together
- Summarise aloud, for example:
- “Several of you noticed assumptions around income or work patterns.”
- “There are recurring questions about care, accessibility, or household structure.”
5. Whole-class guided discussion (10 minutes)
Facilitate a reflective conversation using prompts such as:
- Which aspects of identity appeared most frequently?
- Which were largely absent?
- How did you decide which details were ethically relevant to include?
- How do these identities and conditions shape spatial practices?
- Where might stereotypes be creeping in, even unintentionally?
- Which constraints (for example income, tenure, eligibility, or precarity) are clearly defined, and which remain vague?
The initial question — “Do you think your users are appropriate for social or affordable housing?” — is revisited at the end of the discussion to allow students to reflect on whether their position has shifted.
6. Reframing the visual representation of users (15 minutes)
Students are asked to critically reflect on the visual material they brought.
Prompt them to consider:
- What does this image communicate about the user’s agency?
- Does it reinforce a particular narrative (heroic, tragic, aspirational)?
- What aspects of everyday life are missing?
- How might this image need to evolve as the design develops?
This positions images as active design tools, not neutral illustrations.
7. Short individual written reflection (10 minutes)
Ask students to write 3–5 sentences responding to:
“How did you decide whose story was important to tell, and how you chose to represent it?”
Remind them:
- Not to include personal or sensitive information
- To keep users anonymised
- To focus on decision-making rather than personal disclosure
Collect these reflections at the end of the session.
8. Closing discussion (5 minutes)
Close with:
- “What did you learn today about imagining others?”
- “How might this change how you approach your design project?”
Thank students for engaging thoughtfully with a complex task.
Facilitation notes
Tone
- Supportive, curious, reflective
- Emphasise refinement rather than correction
Common challenges
- Defaulting to middle-class, able-bodied norms
- Hesitation around race, gender, or disability
- Overly simplified or stereotypical imagery
Strategies
- Encourage specificity without sensationalism
- Emphasise research over imagination alone
- Model careful language
- Reinforce that identity should shape spatial need and practice, not just appear visually