Design Anthropology

Design anthropology emerges out of both disciplines and thus both modes of knowledge:

design - a practice skilled in facilitating unique transformations; in imagining and realizing new possibilities and in generating creative and innovative perspectives on objects, environments, technologies, services and systems, and

anthropology - a scientific study of humanity, human behaviour and the social, cultural and physical development of human kind.

Those of us embracing the connection between anthropology and design share powerful interests and concerns about human activity in and on, or jointly with the world.

For kwokka, design anthropology inhabits a critical space in our approach to design, opening new perspectives on the relationship between humans - their behaviour, influence and experience(s) - and design activity. With an emphasis on understanding the complexity of relations that make, shape and modify the human world, this approach has led to strong links with user-centred design processes including participatory design and contextual design, and embracing collaboration through co-creative, co-analysis and co-design processes.