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MSc Interaction Design / 120 ECT /  Thesis Project K3 / Malmö University /  Sweden 

Date of Examination​ / 03 June / 2020  Supervisor​ / Susan Kozel 

Examiner ​/ Clint Heyer 

 

 

 

 

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Abstract  

This thesis explores the dimensions of an  emerging vulnerable design space in the  context of COVID-19 pandemic through a  design process that rethinks designer's  presence and power in a context of remote  exploration and embraces diary as a method  and prototype to integrate interdisciplinary  research in exploring different temporalities  to record the past, to deal with the present  and to speculate about what can happen  afterwards. 

 

  

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Design 

through 

vulnerability 

Designing presence in a time of  pandemic  

 

1.​Introduction 

1.1 MOTIVATION AND RELEVANCE FOR  SOCIETY  

1.2 POSITIONING WITHIN IXD  1.3 AN EMERGING VULNERABLE  DESIGN SPACE 

1.4 RESEARCH FOCUS 

2​.Theoretical​ ground 

2​.1. PRESENCE 

2​.1.1 Concept & definition  2.1.2 Virtual presence  2.1.3 Presence in a pandemic  context    2.2. PERFORMATIVITY &  PERFORMANCE 

2.2.1 Concept & definition   2.2.2 On social networks  2.2.3 ​Performance in trouble times   

2.3. VULNERABILITY 

2.3.1 Concept & definition  2.3.2 The vulnerability of the  people 

2.3.3 The vulnerability of the  researcher 

 

2.4. DIARY 

2.4.1 Concept & method 

2.4.2 Diary as a presence in  vulnerable times 

3. Methodology 

3.1. GENERAL APPROACH                           

3.2. NETNOGRAPHY & VIRTUAL  METHODS  

3.2.1 Designer as a “witness” or a  “voyeur” 

3.2.2 Designer involved as a  participant 

3.2.3 Designer as vulnerable as  everyone else     3.3. UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEWS  3.3.1 Questioning the  people-designer hierarchy   3.3.2 Creating an intimate  relationship     3.4. DIARY METHODS 

3.4.1 A support with different  temporalities 

3.4.2 Questioning the  people-designer hierarchy    

3.5. SPECULATIVE APPROACH  3.5.1 Speculative part of the  diary 

3.5.2 Informal discussions 

4. Design process 

4.1. NETNOGRAPHY & VIRTUAL  METHODS  

4.1.1 Observing vulnerability  4.1.2 Mingle with vulnerability  4.1.3 Designer as vulnerable as  everyone else  

 

4.2. DIARY METHODS 

4.2.1 Diary V1: Diary format  4.2.2 Diary V2: Designer as a  confidant 

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4.3. SPECULATIVE APPROACH  4.3.1 Speculative part of the  diary 

4.3.2 “Archaeology of the Future” 

5. Prototype 

5.1. DIARY AS AN ARCHIVE (past)  5.2. DIARY AS A THERAPEUTIC TOOL  (present)  5.3. DIARY AS A SPECULATIVE  MEDIUM (future) 

6. Evaluation & 

discussion 

6.1. DIFFERENT TEMPORALITIES  6.2. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS   6.3. PROTOTYPE DEVELOPMENT  

7. Conclusion 

8. Acknowledgements 

9. Bibliography 

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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1.Introduction 

1.1 MOTIVATION AND RELEVANCE FOR  SOCIETY  

Since January 2020 the COVID-19 epidemic  has spread across the globe. Several  countries including China, Italy, Spain,  Belgium and France adopted quarantine  measures to stop the spread of the virus.  Containment means isolating yourself in your  own home and avoiding all interactions with  the outside environment. As 20th-century  authors praised solitude, the French  newspapers Le Monde (Leila Slimani, 2020)  and France Culture offer a celebrity's story of  confinement every day, giving a romanticized  vision of quarantine and isolation. Here, their  vision is a homebody (the elitist solitude) or  even spiritual (the solitude of the wise or the  religious). Other forms of testimonials are  gradually emerging, with diaries taking the  form of Instagram stories, Facebook 

publication, Youtube video, etc. They reveal a  more realistic, sensitive and vulnerable facet  of daily life in quarantine.  

 

In a moment of deep fear and uncertainty,  people are cut off from all human contact or  at least are forced to limit their interactions  with the outside world and consequently find  themselves in a state of vulnerability. From  hugs to handshakes to other social rituals, all  are now tinged with danger (Yong, 2020). All  levels of the population are affected: the  elderly, who are already excluded from a large  part of public life, are being asked to distance  themselves even further, which aggravates  their loneliness, students find themselves  isolated in the city in cramped 9 m​2 

apartments, families struggle to keep their  children occupied, some find themselves  forced into technical unemployment, others  into teleworking, and some have jobs that are  necessary to make our daily lives operational  are vulnerable without sufficient protection  against the virus (medical staff, cashiers,  garbage collectors, policemen, firemen, etc.).    

However, over a long period of time social  isolation and loneliness can also cause 

psychological and physiological disorders.  These disorders are not only linked to the  pandemic, of course, but the latter allows us  to bring to light an ailment that is widely  present in our society. The habitat can be  seen as a prison for the isolated person. Here  a context of vulnerability emerges. Solitude  and isolation do not necessarily mean the  total absence of social interaction: real  interactions disappear, but virtual interactions  punctuate the day (Social networks, online  messaging, sms...). They constitute a  presence and populate the domestic space.  People isolated at home seek to interact with  the outside world in ways other than through  social networks or video games. Video games  such as Minecraft or Animal Crossing are ways  of virtually reproducing daily moments or  events: going for a walk with friends, visiting a  museum, organising a graduation ceremony  as a group of schoolchildren did in Japan or  even demonstrations (several organised by  the "yellow vests" or by Hong Kong 

demonstrators).    

In order to cope with this period of  vulnerability, people use many strategies  through different media to stay in touch with  the outside world: watching a movie with  friends remotely through screen sharing,  sharing a meal via Skype with one's family,  attending an artist's live on Instagram, etc.  (Joe Pinsker, 2020). These circumstances  encouraged the creation of a strong 

community spirit, as shown by the viral videos  of Italians singing in chorus on their balconies,  the initiatives to support the medical 

profession, the creative or artistic initiatives to  support artists and the cultural sector, which  is also suffering the effects of this pandemic.  In this context, social isolation is not the only  factor of vulnerability. Here, regardless of  whether one is alone, living in a shared flat or  with one's family, everyone is confronted with  the stress of the unknown, or worrying about  one's relatives or about what the world will  become after this pandemic.  

 

1.2 POSITIONING WITHIN IXD 

This thesis explores interdisciplinary research  in the humanities, social psychology, 

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anthropology and literature and arts and how  these particular circumstances push the  designers to rethink and adapt their practices  and research methods in order to remain  connected to their work field. This also  concerns the presence of the designers, and  what form their interventions take with the  distance. This thesis also questions how  practitioners within the research and IXD field  can continue their investigations and work in a  time of crisis, in a (more) vulnerable time.  Within Interaction Design, the issue of  vulnerability can be seen as an ambivalent  problem: vulnerability as a matter of research,  because people suffer and as an element that  is suffered, because researcher-designers  expose themselves to vulnerability.   

In this case, I will question both of these  concerns: vulnerability as a matter of research  and as something suffered. Firstly, by 

interacting for two months with people locked  down in France while I myself am affected by  the vulnerability inherent in the current  situation. In order to explore the subject of  vulnerability in the relationship that  designer-researchers have with the people  who are their subject of study, I will seek to  use and develop diary methods within  Interaction Design. This creative approach  can be seen as a design process that involves  exploratory methods. Interaction design has  appropriated this method from the humanities  and social sciences by questioning its 

modalities, its form, its purpose and the role it  can play in the relationship with the people  being studied. The diary method has often  been used in interaction design research  projects, such as Affective Diary, a digital  diary based on the participants' written and  embodied memory (Anna Ståh, 2009), or as a  support for group reflection (Jette Hyldegård,  2006), as part of cultural probes, or as part of  a qualitative analysis. 

 

Firstly, my work consists in defining this  vulnerable design space and to understand  how this vulnerability is currently revealed,  how it shapes the digital common space  (social networks among others), and how the 

"shared" diary becomes a manoeuvre to keep  track of this period of vulnerability. 

 

Secondly, my work will attempt to develop an  exploratory approach to questioning my  presence as a designer (my presence as such,  the form of my contribution, etc.) and my role  (my relationship with the people the inherent  hierarchy that results from this method, etc.)  in the diary method, as people explore their  vulnerability. 

 

Third, the diary approaches the status of a  design prototype as an archive and as a  speculative medium for shaping the  imaginary, as well as the effects at the  individual (the therapeutic and reflective  aspect) and collective (the diary as an archive  and as a speculative medium for shaping the  imaginary) levels of the diary.  

 

In this thesis, three contributions to design  are outlined: first, the framing and exploration  of an entirely new design space (anchored  and created by this pandemic); the  development of a method that takes into  account the vulnerability of people and the  designer; and the design of a prototype as a  multi-temporal archaeological support,  archive (past), therapeutic tool (present),  speculative support (future). 

 

  1.3 AN (EMERGING) VULNERABLE  DESIGN SPACE 

Vulnerability is obviously not new in design  research. Other designers and researchers  have already explored this topic: in particular  in User Experience Design (UX), urban design,  or social design. Vulnerability in HCI has been  defined by Vines et al (2016) as pertaining to  particular categories: « This has included  working with groups as diverse as homeless  mothers [5], people living with dementia [6],  children with special needs [4] and paroles  and parole officers [11] among many others.”  (p 3232). Other instances of designing for  vulnerability applies the category to software  and systems (Abomhara, 2016). This thesis  contests the assumption that design can be  interrupted during a crisis until it is over, and 

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that it will resume once things are back to  "normal". It is intended to be read as a crisis  manual for designers so that they become  aware of their vulnerability and keep on  designing. Likewise, it provides a design space  that encourages people to design for and with  vulnerability. Vulnerable designers design for  vulnerable people. 

 

María Puig de la Bellacasa highlights the  existence of a space of knowledge aware  through mutual vulnerability (Puig de la  Bellacasa, 2017, p82). According to her,  thinking of a certain proximity in relations of  “intervulnerability” is the element that  encourages awareness of the consequences  of knowledge creation. Puig de la Bellacasa  invokes Donna Haraway's formulation from  The Companion Species Manifesto in order to  highlight the fact that the people studied and  observed by designer-researchers are there  not only to think but also to "live with"  (Haraway 2003, p5). 

 

Reading the moments of dissent as examples  of careful reflection underlines the difficulties  of taking care of the relationships involved in  creative knowledge: Maria Puig De la 

Bellacasa points out that "Yet, worrying about  the effects of our thinking - even in worlds we  prefer not to approve of - can also make us  more vulnerable. Recognising vulnerability as  an ethical stance could be the inevitable price  of commitment and involvement - if care  displaces relational networks, even in creating  People who care for people are inevitably  displaced too" (2017, p 83). This vulnerable  research space questions whether a certain  closeness in the relationships of 

intervulnerability, between 

designer-researchers and people, would  encourage awareness of the consequences of  knowledge creation (p 82). 

 

 

1.4 RESEARCH FOCUS 

This thesis will attempt to explore the 

dimensions of an emerging vulnerable design  space through a design process that adopt a  diary as a method to better address and deal 

with crisis periods such as COVID-19  pandemic.   

Research Questions 

I) How does the designer deal with a context  of vulnerability, such as a pandemic situation,  where both designer and people designed  for/with are vulnerable? 

 

Sub Research Questions 

II) How can the designer's presence and  power be rethought in a context of remote  exchange and exploration in a less intrusive  and hierarchical form?  

 

III) How can the diary method and prototype  be both a research support for 

designer-researchers and a design 

contribution that combines past present and  future for people : a reflection practice,  therapeutic tool, and archival trace for  people? 

2.Theoretical ground 

2.1. PRESENCE 

2.1.1 Concept & definition  By definition the ​presence​ is “the fact that  someone or something is in a place” and is  therefore intimately linked to a 

spatiotemporal context 

(dictionary.cambridge.org, n.d.). Presence is  generally regarded as the state that opposes  absence. It is through this tension that the  dynamism of reality takes root: one is present,  here and now, or one is not.  

 

From the perspective of phenomenology,  presence is used to designate the embracing  unity in which the relationship between  human and the world operates in its integral  unity (Heidegger, 1962). Presence is both  presence of the world for humans and  presence of humans in the world of which  they are a part. It is a reciprocal and unitary  connection that cannot be dissociated.  Presence is the central element in the  relationship between human beings and the  world. What we understand by "presence" is  obviously of an eminently temporal nature  which, however, is not limited to the purely 

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present. The world is present in every  moment of our existence through each of the  situations in which we find ourselves from one  moment to the next. The world as such is,  therefore, the complex articulation of this  presence through time and space. From a  psychological point of view, the concept of  presence is related to the notion of memory   (Fox, Bailenson, & Binney, 2009; Nichols,  Haldane, & Wilson, 2000). Recollection can be  understood as a partial representation of the  past through memory that brings and forms  the temporal window from the present to the  past. Memory is the presence of the past. It is  the presence of the past in the very presence  of what is present, but which is constituent of  it. 

 

Thus, presence is a polysemic concept that is  redefined for each field of study (philosophy,  psychology, sociology, etc.). It is also 

common to refer to presence in the religious  sciences, telecommunications or the 

performing arts (Auslander, 2012). 

Furthermore, presence is now a prized area of  research with the virtual devices that have the  power to make the absent present. The many  research projects related to this subject tend  to explore new forms of presence and at the  same time make the notion of presence  increasingly blurred. 

2.1.2 Virtual presence   Indeed, the use of communication  technologies has made this common  definition even less clear. This problematic  already manifests itself in the etymology of  the word telecommunication, referring to the  idea of remote communication. These  technologies are actually the means for  distant, and therefore absent, participants to  act, to interact in a common space with  people who are not physically present with  them. They embody forms of presence that  are distinct from "being here and now". The  forms are in the plural, because it is clear that  the absent person whose text message one  reads to wish a happy birthday and the person  who wishes it by videoconference are not  "present" in the same way. Tara McPherson  refers to the example of the cursor as a visual 

representation of our presence on the  computer interface. In our exploration of the  web, we act in the form of a cursor, a tangible  sign of presence implying movement. The web  structures a sense of causality modelled on  that of life, a life in which we navigate and  move, often structuring the feeling that our  own desire drives movement. "The web is a  presence but an unstable presence: it is in  process, in motion" (Tara McPherson, 2002,  pp 461-462).  

 

What about how our virtual presence is  perceived by others? Instagram and  Messenger users show weak signs of  presence. Indeed, they are constrained by  only two options: appear/green dot -  disappear. Moving dots on Facebook 

indicating that we are typing on our keyboard  are strong signs of presence because they are  signs of activity. The contact can know not  only that their friend is online, but also what  they are doing. During the pandemic online  games were very successful. Whether it is  Minecraft, Animal Crossing or LinkLink all  these games have in common to allow the  player to be present in a fictional 

environment. The presence is embodied by a  character that can be customized beforehand.  This presence constitutes a virtual alter ego  that allows you to interact with this virtual  world and other players. The game becomes a  bit like a theatre play where players in 

quarantine play what they cannot do anymore  in their daily life: go to public places, hang out  with friends or meet complete strangers 

 

2.1.3 Presence in a pandemic  context 

The real world and the virtual world are then  two different worlds, but not separated, and  even less opposed. The digital space is real  and is part of the continuity of our world. In  the same way that the digital space is an  extension of the physical space, our digital  activities are in the continuity of our other  activities. Indeed, in this "culture of 

simulation" (Sherry Turkle, 1995, p72), users  are "increasingly comfortable with 

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reality" (p72). We are accustomed to  communicating, informing, entertaining,  working and consuming in digital spaces.  Questioning presence also means challenging  the notion of space of interaction. Indeed, the  social distancing recommendations and/or  restrictions introduced to limit the spread of  the virus have considerably restricted the  spaces for interaction. Referring to Edward  Hall's concept of proxemic [✺figure 1], the  current interactions are more situated in the  public space and the social space. The  science fiction author Alain Damasio writes a  letter for the radio programme France Inter  (Damasio, 2020) about the presence of his  loved ones during confinement, a presence  that is made through the screen of his  telephone. 

 

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How could the concept of proxemic be  transposed to virtual interactions? This period  of pandemic brings our digital interactions to  their peak and draws new ways of occupying  these spaces [✺figure 2]. 

 

Psychotherapist Susie Orbach describes the  presence of this vulnerability that she can  now only read through a screen, but which  nevertheless seems so close to her: 

“Seven weeks in, the disjuncture has passed.  I, like all of us, am accommodating to multiple  corporeal realities: bodies alone, bodies  distant, bodies in the park to be avoided,  bodies of disobedient youths hanging out in  groups, bodies in lines outside shops, bodies  and voices flattened on screens and above all,  bodies of dead health workers and carers.  Black bodies, brown bodies. Working-class  bodies. Bodies not normally praised, now  being celebrated.” (Orbach, 2020).   

During this period, the screen becomes a  window to a multiplicity of other realities,  other vulnerable people. It becomes a  presence to interact with a relative far away  that we can no longer visit, with a person who  is a victim of the COVID-19 virus, and it allows  us to keep track of this period (photo, video,  text, etc.). Isolation can be temporary or  long-lasting, voluntary or involuntary, painful  or invigorating. It is finally appreciated in  relation to others. I am isolated because I am  with no one, which also reveals the 

importance of others whom I did not suspect  when they were by my side, like Robinson on  his deserted beach:  

 

"I now know that each human carries within  him and as if above him a fragile and complex  scaffolding of habits, responses, reflexes,  mechanisms, concerns, dreams and 

implications that has formed and continues to  be transformed by the perpetual touching of  fellow human beings. Deprived of sap, this  delicate efflorescence withers and 

disintegrates. Others, the centrepiece of my  universe..." (Tournier and Denny, 1997).    

Finally in this period, one is looking for the  manifestation of the presence of the other, 

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whether he or she is a relative, a neighbour or  a complete stranger. 

   

1.2. PERFORMATIVITY &  PERFORMANCE 

1.2.1 Concept & definition  Performativity​ describes the fact that a  linguistic sign (statement, sentence, verb,  etc.) is performative, in other words, language  not only describes the world but can also  function as a form of social action. The use of  one of these signs then brings a reality to life.  For the first time, the concept of performative  language was described by the philosopher  John L. Austin. He argued that there was a  difference between consensual language,  which describes the world, and performative  language, which does something in the world,  which is inscribed in the world (Austin, 1959).  In the 1990s, Judith Butler developed the  concept of performativity to describe the way  in which gender is constructed (Butler, 2006).  Ritual specialists have also used the concept  of performative action and performativity in a  very productive way, by examining how rituals  function performatively to have effects on the  world.  

 

As Richard Schechner points out: "just as  there are no theoretical limits to 

performativity [...]. Even 

non-performance-sitting in a chair, crossing  the street, sleeping-can be made into a  performance by framing these ordinary  actions as performance" (Schechner, 2002,  p142). Thus, the concept of performativity  can be applied not only to any action but also  to any discipline that does not usually fall into  the performance spectrum: architecture,  literature, law, painting, social sciences,  archaeology, etc. This means that 

performativity is the result of the recognition  of the performative potential of an action,  event or object. Based on this postulate,  performativity is not an end in itself, a  definitive and concrete reality, but rather a  process taking place within an event (p 30). It  can even be considered as the construction of  a reality as a performance and as 

reconstruction, either through the intellectual  recognition of the stages of this construction.  According to the logic of the archive, 

performance​ is what does not remain 

(Rebecca Schneider. 2011) and therefore can  be perceived as a process of disappearance,  of an ephemerality (here there are no  vestiges). Archives are inherent to Western  culture.  

 

Our understanding of the world and our  history, is made through vestiges that we  accumulate, material traces that we leave and  cherish. Rebecca Schneider points out that  memory is not destined to be lodged eternally  in a body, and therefore that "oral narration,  live recitation, repeated gestures and ritual  staging" are not practices of narrating or  writing history (ibid). Therefore, the logic of  archives takes precedence over the 

performance of scripts (storytelling, theatre,  dance, novels, etc.). Schneider invites us to  think in opposition to this logic of the archive:  performance should not be considered as  what disappears, but as the act of remaining  and a means of reappearing (although it is not  a metaphysics of presence).   

 

Wendy Chun evokes how new technologies  encourage us to consider memory as storage:  as a full presence that cannot be erased. This  notion of full presence derives from a 

bureaucratic metaphor: "filing cabinets in the  basement". By reconceptualizing human  memory in this way, immortality takes  precedence over storage: thus, information  would be like the undead (Wendy Chun.  2013). 

 

1.2.2 Performance on social  networks 

For Schechner, if every reality, every object,  every event or every action can be seen as a  performance, then there is performativity in  everything. He, in turn, adapts this use of the  term performative to stage actions as well as  to everyday actions, extending the concept to  the whole field of reality. Performativity is  everywhere, he says, "in daily behavior, in the  professions, on the internet and media, in the  arts, and in language". So how does 

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performance show itself on social networks?  Especially in the current context where social  networks are the only window to the outside  world, how do people use these virtual spaces  as a stage for performance? During the  pandemic, ephemeral formats are privileged.  Numerous live performances (concerts,  interviews, shows, plays, etc.) are emerging  on various platforms. Obviously it is always  possible to immortalize this moment by taking  a screen or recording the content as we would  do if we took a video of a concert in a festival.  Overall, Schneider's study of performance  outlines a tension with regard to the  ephemeral nature of performance and the  traces it can leave. This tension draws a  parallel between the notion of disappearance  and that of ritual. Ritual intervenes here as an  injunction to us to (re)find ourselves in  repetition. This notion of ritual appears in our  use of social networks or, more broadly, of  digital technology: checking our notifications  regularly, publishing a story every day on  Instagram, following a live performance every  day at the same time on Twitch, etc. People  find in repetition a reassuring presence.    

In these troubled times, the introduction of  new rituals provides new landmarks. “The  internet allows us to maintain a sense of  normalcy and support one another and come  together,” (Tanya Basu and Karen Hao. Why  does it suddenly feel like 1999 on the  internet? 2020) 

 

1.2.3 Performance in trouble times  The theories of trauma and repetition 

demonstrate that it is not the presence that  appears in the performance, but precisely the  missed encounter. Although its remains are  immaterial, the performance does not  disappear: the set of acts and spectral  meanings which haunt material in constant  collective interaction, in constellations  (Performing remains. Rebecca Schneider.  2011). 

 

Even if the performance does not leave  material traces, it leaves vestiges: in  particular through the transmission of oral  traditions, rituals, songs, dance, etc., it leaves 

its legacy. Today, social networks participate  in various forms in the structuring of these  vestiges. All the content produced during this  pandemic period is a testimony that does not  reside in materiality. Digital content can  persist but can also disappear at any time.  Finally the performance would be a means of  negotiating disappearance. What if the  pandemic framework calls for more 

consideration of performance as a vestige? A  vestige that would echo this period of trouble  and fully embrace this climate of vulnerability.   

 

1.3. VULNERABILITY 

1.3.1 Concept & definition  The term ​vulnerability​ has its roots in Latin  and derives from the noun ​vulnu​, "the  wound", verb vulnerare, "to wound", and  vulnerabilis​, which means "who can be  wounded" and "who wounds". According to  Hélène Thomas, vulnerability brings together  two notions: the rift on the one hand (the  sensitive, fragile zone through which the injury  will occur) and the wound on the other (which  will materializes the injury). Vulnerability thus 

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refers to "a potential to be injured"  emotionally (Soulet, 2005, pp 49-59).   

In the 1970s, the term was used by experts  on natural disasters. It spread in the medical  literature, mainly paediatric, psychiatric and  geriatric, with the aim of identifying and  distinguishing pathologies, to expand in the  1990s with its current use, that is to say, a  sensitivity "that exposes to...". During the  19th-20th centuries, vulnerability was seen  as a manageable issue to be addressed;  hence the building of social protection, the  development of medicine, etc., and the  development of the social protection system.  Towards the end of the twentieth century, a  feeling of multifaceted crises (wars, natural  and ecological disasters, unemployment,  pandemics, etc.) and consequently of partial  powerlessness led to a new approach to  vulnerability: ambivalence between increased  awareness of risks and the impossibility of  controlling them all. During the COVID-19  pandemic, people are more vulnerable than  ever: uncertainty of the situation, loss of  control of the situation, isolation, distance  from family and friends, concerns about the  future, etc.  

 

We have seen previously that in order to deal  with this, strategies and joint initiatives are  being put in place. Vulnerability is at the heart  of shame and fear and our problem with  self-esteem, but it is also the source of joy  and creativity, of a sense of belonging (Brene  Brown, 2010). As some social networking  initiatives have shown, vulnerability is a  driving force in the creation of groups and  communities and invites mutual help.    

1.3.3 The vulnerability of the  people 

The circumstances, uncertainties and  measures taken to contain the virus  contribute to everyone's vulnerability and  isolation.  

 

The researcher in sociology Elodie Boublil  defines vulnerability as relational in the sense  that human relationships and bonds are in  themselves "vulnerable and precarious" 

(Elodie Boublil, 2018, p183). The 

interpersonal understanding and how we  coexist are an expression of the vulnerability  and the subjectivity. Thus, vulnerability is  inherent in our interactions. I perceive the  vulnerability of the other by and through my  own vulnerability. "Vulnerability structures  the subject's experience of the world. As  such, it is a "susceptibility" to be hurt rather  than a real failure or fragility. It can be seen as  an ability to be sensitive to someone's 

expressive unity, to be sensitive to differences  and creations." (p184). 

 

1.3.3 The vulnerability of the  researcher 

While many scientific works are increasingly  focusing on the issue of vulnerability, in this  case, the pandemic situation influences and  impacts our research as a researcher and/or  designer. Whether one wants to or not,  vulnerability is therefore present in the  research work in progress. Researchers and  designers are constantly exposed to 

vulnerability, be it through netnography,  interviews, field observation, etc. As a  designer-researcher, our way of dealing with  it could be to numb vulnerability, and not take  into account our own sensitivity when faced  with such a period of crisis. But we cannot  selectively numb our emotions. When we  numb painful emotions, we also numb joy,  gratitude, happiness (2010). 

 

In both practice and research it is necessary  to accept vulnerability and to give it room and  not silence it at all costs. After several studies  on vulnerability, the researcher Brene Brown  points out that “we live in a vulnerable world”.    

Judith Butler also emphasizes the importance  of the ethical nature of vulnerability. She  supports her reasoning with the work of  Levinas: "we are, all of us, in some sense  responsible for that which persecutes us". It  does not mean that we provoke our 

persecution, but rather that this "persecution"  would be an ethical requirement imposed on  us against our will. This is beyond the scope of  our will and depends on our sensitivity,  receptivity and responsiveness.  

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“There is no other way to understand the  ethical reality; ethical obligation not only  depends upon our vulnerability to the claims  of others but also establishes us as creatures  who are fundamentally defined by that ethical  relation”(Precarious Life and the Ethics of  Cohabitation. Judith Butler, p14).  

 

We are, in a sense, vulnerable to demands  that "we cannot anticipate and for which there  is no adequate preparation" (ibid). Doubt and  uncertainty being intrinsic to research,  therefore being a researcher means being  vulnerable. 

   

1.4. DIARY 

1.4.1 Concept & method 

This section is a bridge between theory and  method. In the diary methods, there is both  vulnerability, presence and performativity.  Diary methods come from the fields of  psychology and anthropology. In the field of  Human Computer Interaction (HCI), diary  methods represent a method used to analyze  user needs for user-centered design. It is a  research method that collects qualitative  information by asking participants to record  their daily life in a diary. This may take the  form of a diary or logbook about the activity or  experience being studied over a period of  time. Diaries can be used to study temporal  phenomena, events, fluctuating phenomena  such as moods or behaviours, and to track  daily events over time.  

 

This is a research tool, which of course differs  from a real study in the field, but which  nevertheless offers a considerable amount of  contextual information gathered at a distance.  With the emergence of mobile phones, 

participants can keep a diary with photos,  videos and text using a variety of online and  offline media (applications, chat, email, social  networking, cloud, word processor, etc.).  Researchers, archivists and citizens are using  various common platforms (mainly social  networks) to keep track of how we have lived  and changed during this strange period in  history marked by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

On Instagram and Twitter, the  #theisolationjournals tag allows for 

contributions ranging from simple photos to  dance performance videos, handwritten diary  pages, original music and art, blog posts, and  more. 

 

Transposed into the digital world, by 

participating in the activities of a website, we  expand our being in this space, which 

consequently becomes ours by adding our  personal touch. We are also defined by our  Facebook profile or our Instagram account  because we shape them with our publications  and our sharing. It's the same thing in a diary.  The diary is like an extension of us at different  point t in time. It functions as a space to  archive fragments of memories. In the context  of diary studies, however, it is meant to be  read and shared with the researcher. Media  Studies scholar Wendy Chun explains that  rather than producing possible actions and  statements, archives are a constantly  rewritten storage system driven by the  ephemeral. The archive as memory is the  reminiscence of the past that is part of the  world's current presence (Chun, 2013, p32).  From a psychological point of view, it is the  function of memory that comes into play here.  By recalling their memories, participants will  consciously or unconsciously omit certain  elements and synthesize their thoughts and  feelings. It is a representation of the past in  the present or in the literal sense of the term  "representation". More explicitly, the aim is to  bring back to consciousness an element  (action, interaction, feeling, reflection, etc.)  that is absent or present but hidden.    

Indeed, it is a co-presence of the past in the  presence of what is present. There is no  present without the presence of the past.  Whether by keeping a logbook, doing stories  on Instagram or doing archival work, these  examples of initiatives demonstrate that  people are aware that this particular era will  be historically significant. It is therefore  appropriate to capture this vulnerable period  through writing, photos, videos or live  recordings.“Archiving has never been about  saving everything, it’s about trying to save a 

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representation,” said Mark Graham, the  director of the Wayback Machine at the  Internet Archive (Basu & Ohlheiser. 2020).  What if these diaries posted on the Internet or  kept privately were like a means of recording  a representation of our vulnerability during  this period? 

 

1.4.2 Diary as a presence in  vulnerable times 

In addition to changing our behaviour, the  pandemic is also changing the way we  interact with our personal social media  archives, with the tracks we leave on these  virtual spaces. In order to cope with this  period of vulnerability, people take "nostalgic  trips" in their own online history, seeking  comfort in looking back at how it was before.   

Sharing their diaries with a researcher may  lead participants to respond in a way that  makes them appear more socially desirable,  or to avoid showing their vulnerability. This is  the social desirability bias. Thus, like Edward  Hall's proxemics model [✺figure 1] or the  more binary model proposed by social  networks (private/public), the diary shared  with the researcher can be configured in the  same way. Lone Koefoed Hansen and Susan  Kozel suggest the notion of “ a domain of  public dreaming, located at the conjunction of  the private, public and secret within human  existence” (Hansen and Kozel, 2007, 220).  The private aspect "implies that we can share  the details [...] with a few close friends, and it  contains tones of trust and vulnerability".  While the secret refers to a "deeper level of  the body and psyche, a secret realm", which  sometimes the person him/herself is not fully  aware of. It is a realm the designer should not  enter. But then how does the author of the  diary delimit what is private and what is  secret? How does he choose to show or hide  what might be vulnerable? In this experiment  the sleeve serves as a performative medium  for the participants. Researchers choose the  analogy of the switch to represent the effect  of the secret that suspends the performative  mode of the sleeve. This paper questions us  not only on how participants intervene in a  performative process, but also on the 

importance of qualifying and keeping 

information in a state of a secret. The designer  should not be omniscient and should engage  the participants in a setting where they can  choose what information they want to show or  not. 

 

Diary studies can also be used with other  research techniques in a mixed-method  approach. In this research, I would first  observe behaviours and the use of social  networks, conduct interviews, or experiment  with certain platforms to collect data and  examine people's experiences in daily life  during the pandemic period. 

3. Methodology 

3.1. GENERAL APPROACH 

All the methodologies used in this paper tend  to be inclusive, unbiased and more 

representative in terms of the age, gender and  social situation of the people being studied.  Furthermore, the context of the COVID-19  pandemic preventing the possibility of direct  interaction with the field of investigation  forces the use of remote methods and mainly  digital means. Each of these methods also  questions the power and presence of the  designer, and consequently the hierarchical  relationship between the people studied and  the designer inherent to these various remote  observation approaches. The isolation or  social distancing measures aimed at 

containing the spread of COVID-19 imply that  researchers and designers must substitute  their investigations in the field only with  remote means, particularly online. Online  research has existed for many years and has  not waited for crisis periods to emerge: from  netnography to skype interviews from the  diary, the field of possibilities of online  investigation tools is vast (Lupton, D. 2020).  The methodological approach of this research  does not aim to transform the fieldwork, but  rather to question and gauge how these  exclusively online methods accommodate the  vulnerability of the people being studied and  the designer-researcher.  

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3.2. NETNOGRAPHY & VIRTUAL  METHODS  

3.2.1 Designer as a “witness” or a  “voyeur” 

As a first step of the research, I will initiate a  phase of netnography through the observation  of experiences and interactions on social  networks: Twitter and Instagram. This  ethnographic online method of research and  observation includes a specific set of research  practices: from the collection, analysis,  research ethics and representation of data  through the digital traces of public 

conversations recorded by social networks.  Traditional techniques for observing people in  the field are here adapted to the study of  interactions and experiences that are  manifested through digital communications  (Kozinets. 1998. p. 366). 

 

Based on the four types of netnography  created by Robert Kozinet, I will orient the  methodology towards the approach of a  humanistic netnography. This method uses  social media data to attempt to answer social  research questions (1998. p. 377). 

This method not only considers the  vulnerability described through the 

behaviours and interactions studied, it also  raises awareness of the vulnerability of the  data left on these virtual spaces. Here, I  emphasize that by taking the postulate of a  humanistic approach to netnography that  does not focus on data collection, 

designer-researchers make an activist choice  that positions them as defenders of the  protection of the data of the people studied  (2019. p377). I follow the GDPR guidelines  recommended by MaU (Malmö University) by  asking for the consent of the persons studied  before collecting or using their data and  storing the data in a safe space. Furthermore,  I guarantee the anonymity of the persons  studied (name, age, gender, etc.). 

 

This method will also question and take a  critical look at the status of the 

designer-researcher as a witness and voyeur  of vulnerability. 

 

3.2.2 Designer involved as a  participant 

Thereafter it will be a matter of querying the  designers' relationship to vulnerability when  they are no longer passive observers but are  themselves committed as subjects of study at  the same time as conducting the study. Here,  I will combine the previous method with an  auto-netnographic approach. Adapted from  auto-ethnography, it implies that the 

researcher takes account of the data through  their own identity, their own experience  through personal and autobiographical  elements (1998. p. 377). However,  auto-ethnography also brings a critical  dimension to its understanding of the  designer-researcher's own position. By  testing different online communication media  (Discord, LinkLink, Minecraft, Wordfeud,  Whatsapp group, etc.) with friends and  relatives, but also with complete strangers  met online, the intention will be to experience  a less asymmetrical and hierarchical 

relationship between the designer-researcher  and the people studied, and to demonstrate  that the designer is as vulnerable as anyone  else. 

 

Carolyn Ellis develops an approach to  auto-ethnography that allows to better  embrace vulnerability. She supports an  ethnography that includes: “researchers’  vulnerable selves, emotions, bodies, and  spirits; produces evocative stories that create  the effect of reality; celebrates concrete  experience and intimate detail; examines how  human experience is endowed with meaning;  is concerned with moral, ethical, and political  consequences; encourages compassion and  empathy; helps us know how to live and cope;  features multiple voices and repositions  readers and “subjects” as coparticipants in  dialogue; seeks a fusion between social  science and literature in which, as Gregory  Bateson says, “you are partly blown by the  winds of reality and partly an artist creating a  composite out of the inner and outer events”;  and connects the practices of social science  with the living of life. In short, her goal is to  extend ethnography to include the heart, the 

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autobiographical, and the artistic  text​”(Carolyn Ellis, 1999, p 669).    

Designer-researchers are therefore no longer  spectators of vulnerability, but experience it in  their interaction with their subjects of study.  Designers are part of their subjects of study.   In order to build a knowledge space, I would  map digital interactions according to 

proxemics relationships but also according to  the designer's position in relation to the  people being studied and therefore the  vulnerability level the designer has with them.  These knowledge supports will make it  possible to concretize and show this 

vulnerable design space and these different  levels of reading.      3.3. UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEWS  3.3.1 Questioning the  people-designer hierarchy   For many years, the interviews were 

conducted by telephone or video call. Here, it  will not be a question of rethinking new  interview methods according to pandemic  restriction, but rather of seeing how these  different online means of communication  influence the questions of hierarchies  between designer-researchers and people in  the process. How do these means welcome  vulnerability? 

 

These unstructured interviews, otherwise  called informal discussions, will therefore be  conducted in several forms: interview with a  single person (Telegram, Messenger,  Minecraft) and focus group (Discord, Zoom,  WhatsApp group, LikeLike). Of interested here  is the form of the designer's presence during  synchronous and asynchronous interviews,  but also according to the type of interaction  (audio and video, audio message, text,  through a virtual avatar). 

 

3.3.2 Creating an intimate  relationship  

These informal discussions are also an 

opportunity to create the first contact with the  people being studied and thus to create a  relationship of trust. The use of less  conventional media, such as chat or video 

games, will initially help to shake up the  asymmetrical relationship that can sometimes  exist between the designer-researcher and  the people being studied. The hypothesis  behind this approach is that designers, by  choosing to position themselves as subjects  of study and to take into account their  vulnerability, show a less intimidating 

speaker, also a vulnerable being and not only  a designer-researcher who observes and  studies people. This relationship of trust must  also be built on transparency and in a space of  exchange that takes into consideration the  vulnerability that people let the designer see  and the vulnerability that they keep secret.   

 

3.4. DIARY METHODS 

3.4.1 A support with different  temporalities 

After addressing the theoretical aspect of the  diary, I will now turn to its methodological and  formal aspects. The diary is generally 

presented in a rather free format. The people  studied can create it from scratch or 

customize it starting from a template and  based on the instructions left by the  designer-researcher. People enrich it with  various media such as a photograph and text,  but it can also take other forms, such as audio  messages and hyperlinks. These media will  then be used as invitations and guidelines to  provoke reflection and discussion in the  context of the thesis. They act as mediators  between the people studied and the designer.  In the case of an online shared diary, it is also  advisable to choose the means of 

communication by chat, drive or e-mail. These  means of sending can themselves become  media for the diary. 

 

The diary, therefore, has several 

temporalities: during the writing process, as a  medium for exchange with the designer  researcher and finally as a digitally archived  record. Laura Harvey explores a therapeutic  and reflexive approach to diary as a space for  reflection for the people studied before the  interview and as a means of eliciting  conversations with their partners, their  friends. She is not interested in the content of 

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the diary: the diary is never shared with the  researcher and is a private space for people to  record their experiences of intimate moments  in their daily lives (Laura Harvey, 2011. p  677-678). 

 

3.4.2 Questioning the designer  presence  

This approach questions the presence of the  designer-researcher through a medium that  can reveal a content of the intimate or even  private order (2011. p 677-678). I wonder  about the role of diaries as a form of  confession of vulnerability (visible by the  designer-researcher) and as a private space  for the expression of vulnerability (only visible  by the person keeping the diary). The diary  method involves "the vulnerability of revealing  oneself, of not being able to take back what  one has written or having any control over  how readers interpret it" (Carolyn Ellis, 1999,  p 672). The sensitive aspect of revealing  personal vulnerability to someone must  therefore be considered. The very principle of  revealing it makes vulnerable. The fear of  being criticized or judged is inescapable  (1999, p 673). There are also ethical issues  inherent in sharing personal information  about family, friends, feelings or reflections.    

3.5. SPECULATIVE APPROACH  3.3.1 Speculative part of the  diary 

The speculative aspect of the diary is another  element of the diary that will catch my  attention. Indeed, if the people studied share  their present (activity, emotions, thoughts,  etc.) and keep trace of the past, they also  share their reflections on the future, speculate  on possible scenarios or model enviable  imaginings. Here the aim is not to initiate a  speculative method through the diary but  rather an approach, an invitation to speculate.  Every two days during its podcast "Lettre  d'intérieur" (Letter from home) the French  radio France Inter invites an artist, author,  singer, philosopher or even a researcher to  write an open letter questioning the situation  and the future. These letters speculate and  imagine an optimistic, dystopian, doubtful  future. Also these letters, these reflections  are addressed to various correspondents: the 

person you will be in 5 years, a friend, the  child you will never have, your phone screen,  etc. How do we engage the people being  studied in this speculative and reflective  process through the diary? 

 

For Jamer Hunt, designers speculate about  people's needs, both material and immaterial,  rather than probe through real engagement  with the people they study (Hunt, J. 2011,  pp3). The ethnographic approaches to  participatory design projects challenge the  intervention of people in the speculative  process and emphasize that true speculative  research takes shape during the interactive  process between people and the designers  (2011, pp4). This reinforces the idea of  focusing on the temporality of the present, or  at least on how people speculate at that  particular moment. 

 

Bruno Latour at the end of his article ​Imaginer  les gestes-barrières contre le retour à la  production d’avant-crise​ (Imagining barrier  gestures against the return to pre-crisis  production) offers his readers a grid of  questions to feed their personal reflections  and to speculate on post-crisis scenarios:  “As it is always good to link an argument to  practical exercises, let's suggest that readers  try to answer this little inventory. It will be all  the more useful if it is based on a personal  experience directly lived. It is not just a  matter of expressing an opinion that comes to  mind, but of describing a situation and 

perhaps extending it with a small survey. Only  afterwards, if you give yourself the means to  combine the answers to compose the  landscape created by the superimposition of  descriptions, will you end up with an 

embodied and concrete political expression -  but not before. 

Warning: this is not a questionnaire; it is not a  survey. It is an aid to self-description*.  It is about making a list of the activities that  you feel deprived by the current crisis and  that give you the feeling that your basic  conditions of subsistence are being  undermined. For each activity, can you  indicate whether you would like them to 

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resume the same (as before), better, or not at  all. Answer the following questions: 

Question 1: Which of the activities now  suspended you would like to see not  resumed? 

Question 2: Describe (a) why this activity  seems harmful/ superfluous/ dangerous/  inconsistent to you; (b) how would its 

disappearance/suspension/substitution make  other activities that you favour easier/ more  consistent? (Make a separate paragraph for  each of the answers listed in question 1.)  Question 3: What measures do you  recommend to ensure that 

workers/employees/agents/contractors who  will no longer be able to continue in the  activities you are removing are facilitated in  their transition to other activities? 

Question 4: Which of the now suspended  activities would you like to develop/resume or  which ones should be invented as 

replacements? 

Question 5: Describe (a) why this activity  seems positive to you; (b) how it makes other  activities that you favour easier/harmonious/  consistent; and (c) helps to combat those that  you consider unfavourable? (Make a separate  paragraph for each of the answers listed in  question 4.) 

Question 6: What measures do you  recommend to help 

workers/employees/agents/entrepreneurs to  acquire the capacities/ means/ 

income/instruments to take  over/develop/create this activity? 

(Then find a way to compare your description  with those of other participants. Compiling  and then superimposing the answers should  gradually draw a landscape composed of lines  of conflict, alliances, controversies and  oppositions).” (Latour, 2020) 

 

In these times of crisis could the diary be an  invitation to speculate Or be a support to  imagine the vulnerability of tomorrow's  world?             3.3.2 Informal discussions  The speculation should not only be in the  designer's hands, but should take place in the  exchange and in the relationship of 

intervulnerability that operates between the  designer and the people. Following Hunt's  belief that it is in the interactions between  designers and people that speculative  research takes place, I will explore the diary  as a medium for exchange and speculation.  Why would it be necessary to imagine other  possible worlds through the prism of  vulnerability? According to María Puig de la  Bellacasa, to speculate ethically means to  invoke a critical approach that embraces  doubt and awareness while appreciating the  vulnerability of any position on the "as good  as possible" (Puig de la Bellacasa, 2017, p7).  This is why research with the vulnerability of  what it means to think critically and 

speculatively is woven into the diary  experiments.           

 

 

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4.Design process 

2.1. NETNOGRAPHY/VIRTUAL  METHODS   2.1.1 Observing vulnerability  Experimentation concept:​  

Observing how people interact and use social  networks during the pandemic period and by  extension in quarantine. It will also be a  question of observing how vulnerability is  read on social networks, how people show it  and talk about it. 

Duration:​ 1 week  

Social media:​ Twitter, Instagram  Interactions:  

In this case, I am only an observer and  therefore I do not interact with the people I  observe.  

Noticing observations and  insights​: ​Here I will summarise and  highlight the most important discoveries and  insights from the investigations, the follow up  interviews and the diaries. 

Social networks as a window to people's  intimacy. ​In this phase of social network 

observation I noticed how these media  replaced the interactions we had before the  pandemic. People show more of their daily  life, their intimacy (their family life, their  meals, online birthday parties, etc.). Lives on  instagram profuse and are the opportunity to  share a moment of life live and allow others to  participate (by reacting with emoji or 

commenting).   

Social networks as an emotional trigger. ​On 

Twitter viral videos [✺figure 3 & 7] are shared  and touch and emotionally embrace the  viewer because of the vulnerability it shows.  Be it sorrow [✺figure 3], anger (for instance in  reaction to videos showing police violence  during lockdown) or sense of community  [✺figure 4,5 & 6]. 

 

Social networks as a mirror of 

vulnerabilities.​ Social networks also appear 

as a means to recognize oneself through  moments of shared life, testimonies, feelings.  During this period, live Instagram is seen as a  means of weaving solidarity, discussing  concerns, debating the post-pandemic period  and being more present [✺figure 10]. 

 

Social networks like public diaries.​ People 

share their daily life in different forms:  publications, stories, text, video, photos, etc.  During this period, social networks become  logbooks and diaries allowing to document  the daily life of people during this period  [✺figure 13] and to feel less alone with their  vulnerabilities [✺figure 14]. 

 

The designer-researcher just an " observer  " of the vulnerability?​ During this week of 

observation, I witnessed these multiple  vulnerabilities. I also became aware that I  could not simply remain a passive observer in  order to fully accept that I was also part of  this vulnerable mass. Although I was merely  an observer, I felt close to the people I was  observing, sensitive to their testimony and  some of them echoing my own difficulties in  the face of this pandemic situation. But at the  same time this position of the observer gave  me the impression of being a voyeur and  spying on people in their intimacy. I did not  create a relationship with them and my  position as a voyeur made them vulnerable  because without them knowing it I entered  their intimacy.  

 

The designer's position as a voyeur poses an  ethical problem and raises questions about  the power of the observer. Thus, it 

encourages alternative ways of exploring  vulnerability, such as rethinking the  relationship between the designer and  people. 

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2.1.2 Mingle with vulnerability 

Experimentation concept:​ ​Testing of 

several communication media to conduct  informal discussions about the pandemic and  the lockdown.  

People & media:​ ​ 

Wordfeud game application>​ 2 people   Discord (audio & text chat)>​ 8 people (17-47 

years old)  

Messenger (audio & video) & Netflix Party> 

3 people (22-25 years old) 

Minecraft> ​1 person (11 years old)  LikeLike online game> ​4 people  Duration:​ ​1 week 

Noticing observations and  insights​: 

 

Dissolve the hierarchy between the  interviewee and the designer-researcher. 

Starting from the premise that in this crisis  situation the designer-researcher is also one  of the vulnerable people, so I chose to mingle  with them in particular through online games.  On the Wordfeud application [✺figure 15 &  16], which is an online Scrabble application,  the games were punctuated by our 

conversations. The questions go both ways,  there is not really the interviewee but just two  people unfamiliar with each other discussing a  period that concerns and affects everyone. 

 

Creating a space of trust. ​At the beginning of 

each discussion I present my thesis topic in  order to be clear and transparent about my  intentions [✺figure 22]. The fact that I share  about my feelings and my daily life during this  period invites the people to also entrust  themselves. 

 

"I don't feel like I'm being interviewed, I even  find it nice and I feel a bit like traveling with  you to Sweden." 

A player on Wordfeud   

On LikeLike, the fact that players use a  nickname, an avatar [✺figure 20] and that  their character is ephemeral (the character 

disappears when the player leaves the game)  gives a certification of anonymity. Thus, I  don't know the name, the age or even the  gender of my interlocutors, I only have their  nationality (French, Swiss and German) as  information. 

 

"I think I'd never tell you this if we spoke in  real life or on the phone." 

The player Proust on LikeLike.   

Rethinking the designer's presence.  

The group discussion was by audio only. I was  just one voice among others. Sometimes it  was hard to know who was speaking if I  wasn't looking at the screen. When the  conversation was getting stuck, I would  initiate discussion topics by sending photos or  video via the online chat [✺figure 19] . I  participated in the discussion while facilitating  the exchange. The choice to use Minecraft  was first made to chat online with a child, via  a medium they are familiar with. As with  Discord, the exchange was done via audio as  well as via our avatars and the game 

environment. Sometimes the conversation  gets scattered because my interlocutor builds  the living room to welcome me.  

 

"It's kind of like when I play with my mates,  except we talk more and build less."   

A virtual space that builds on our real-life  habits.​ These virtual spaces are like 

metaphors of real life spaces: Discord  becomes like the living room for 

conversations, Netflix Party a cinema session  [✺figure 18]. In LinkLink the environment  modelled on a residential house invites  players to embody everyday gestures  [✺figure 21 & 23]. 

 

"I come here because I miss meeting  strangers like I used to in the subway, in  public places, making eye contact, talking  about the weather." 

The player Milesthefox89 on LikeLike   

 

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2.1.3 Designer as vulnerable as  everyone else  

As a result of this phase of netnography and  unstructured interviews, I came to the  conclusion that the best way to explore and  observe vulnerability as a searcher-designer  is to accept one's vulnerability, and to stop  controlling and predicting it. Finally, I am  vulnerable as everyone else. "Vulnerability is  neither comfortable nor excruciating but  necessary." (Brown, B. 2012). For designing  with vulnerability I must be affected and  active in the process. In addition, my  relationship with my interlocutors is less  hierarchic because we are together and face  the same period of trouble. Despite the  physical distance that there is with my  interlocutors, I felt close in this process of  observation. 

 

   

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2.2. DIARY METHODS 

2.2.1 Diary V1: diary format  

Experimentation concept:​​ People use a 

diary as a means of retracing and reflecting on  their daily life, their feelings during the period  of lockdown 

 

People:​ ​11 people from France / 10-68 

years old / 5 men & 6 women  

1 retiree, 2 nurses, 1 student, 1 doctoral  student, 1 secondary school student, 1 high  school student, 3 teleworking employees, 1  freelancer 

4/11 people is living in confinement alone; the  others are with their families or in a shared  apartment. 

Duration:​ ​​10 days 

Instructions:​​ ​Participants were sent a set 

of instructions and a diary template over  Whats App and via email [Appendix 2]. 

Noticing observations and  insights​: ​ 

Diary to document this period. 

In order to document their daily life in 

quarantine people mainly use text and written  narration. These texts are often illustrated by  a photo, a video seen during the day, a link to  an article or a playlist. The feelings of the day  are also translated by sensitive and creative  media: such as illustration [✺figure 28], or  music. Audio messages [✺figure 27] also  provide a way to document the mood and the  emotional aspect of the day. Two people only  designed their diary with audio recordings: the  first person captured his guitar improvisations  and also his daily background sounds 

(neighbours celebrating Pesach with  traditional songs, kitchen noises, etc.), the  second person told orally about her day.   

Documenting these days in this period of  pandemic also involves documenting the  vulnerability of the daily life [✺figure 25 & 26]  and thus the diary reveals itself to be a  medium for the expression of emotions.   

 

 

Diary as an intimate and/or private space. 

This feeling of being emotionally immersed in  the daily lives of diarists led me to recognize  that some information is private, public and  therefore vulnerable. One person actually  chose not to share their diary and keep it  private. 

 

"Obviously I'm not writing down all of my  feelings because I know you'll read what I've  written, I don't want to overwhelm you."   

"I write down everything I experience and feel  in my computer notes and then I filter it out  when I send it to you, but usually I put it all in  the email." 

 

The designer's presence. 

This experiment also questions the presence  of the designer through the form of the diary  and the nature of my contribution. By  designing a common, free and modifiable  template, I invited the diary authors to  subvert the instructions, to appropriate this  medium and to design their own diary shape  [✺figure 29]. 

 

Feedbacks & outcomes:​ 

7/11 of people prefer that the creator  correspond with them every day and not just  once a week to report on the progress of the  diary. 

 

8/11 of people ask me how I am, and are  concerned about me [✺figure 31 & 32]. In  this time of trouble, people are aware of each  other's vulnerability, or at least are attentive  to each other. My interlocutors here remind  me to consider myself as a vulnerable human  being before being a designer-researcher in  this process. 

 

"But you also keep a diary? Why don't you  share it?" 

     

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References

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Key words: Butong, product design, strategy implementation, strategic branding, prototyping, consumer market, brand positioning, brand identity, brand platform, design