Designing In With Black Box Technologies and PD

Building on prior work we examine design research challenges posed by working with new technological applications of Blockchain within multidisciplinary research. Drawing from recent design research of others, we articulate the value – and associated challenges – of Participatory Design creative approaches involving co-design of similar ‘black box’ technologies. We go on to report on three workshops, including one in which we invited technologists and designers to work together to talk through and materially represent their tacit understandings of how two Blockchain applications – BITNATION and Trust Stamp – work. We demonstrate how creative methods are useful in enabling critical reflection and knowledge exchange providing a useful bridge between radically different disciplines; to counter emerging technologies’ ‘unconscious image’ as magic; and to valuably inform on future oriented design implications.