Research and development project

The Dilemmachine

Participants from Design School Kolding
Research and development project type
Research and development
Project period
2013 - 2014
LAB
Social Design
LAB theme
Citizenship and Agency
Background
Dilemmaskinen is a study, a digital game and a conversation starter, which focuses on welfare technologies and involves users in choosing how we, as a society, are to deal with future care tasks.

About the complexity of welfare technological dilemmas

Dilemmaskinen has the form of a digital game, where the player is asked a series of questions and given tasks relating to welfare technology in their local care sector.

The objective
The objective of Dilemmaskinen is to generate debate and provoke users by showing them the worst possible consequences of their choices. The game consists of five questions and five tasks that are connected to the replies given. In the questionnaire, you can choose to give careful, balanced responses, but when you then come to performing the task related to the question, the real dilemma is introduced. In other words, there are no wrong or right answers in Dilemmaskinen. And there are no easy answers either

Results
Dilemmaskinen has proven to be an excellent conversation starter. Many people who have tried Dilemmaskinen find it both thought-provoking and entertaining – and excellent for generating debate.

On the technical side, Dilemmaskinen has been designed to be extremely flexible. All texts and images are easily replaced. Dilemmaskinen can thus be programmed to deal with an entirely different subject, in which you wish to involve users and get input from.

Why The Dilemmachine

In November 2012, the Danish Technological Institute (DTI) published an evaluation of a feeding robot. This generated heated public debate about whether welfare technology can be linked to better service and improved quality of life for citizens. The debate inspired Design School Kolding's Laboratory for Social Inclusion to develop a research design – Dilemmaskinen – which both encourages interested participants to take a stance on important welfare technology issues and also encourages them to reflect on the consequences of their choices.

Tested on users
Dilemmaskinen has been tested in several different environments: Among shoppers at Kolding Storcenter, among passengers at Odense Central Station, at DGI Huset in Aarhus, at Kolding Library and at a special workshop with the welfare technology partnership UNIK.

Resultater

Dilemmaskinen har vist sig at være et glimrende samtaleværktøj. Mange, der har prøvet Dilemmaskinen, oplever den som både tankevækkende og underholdende - og som en god debatskaber.

På den tekniske side er Dilemmaskinen designet til at være fleksibel. Alle tekster og billeder kan let skiftes ud. Dilemmaskinen kan således programmeres til at omhandle et helt andet emne, som man ønsker at involvere brugere i og få input fra.

Would you like to know more?

Contact

Media Workshop

Allan Schmidt

Kommunikationsdesigner, eventkoordinator og underviser på den tværfaglige undervisning