Designing Harvesting Tools for Olive Trees: Methodological Reflections on Exploring and Incorporating Plant Perspectives in the Early Stages of Design Process

TL;DR

This paper explores how More-than-human Design techniques can be applied to develop olive harvesting tools by incorporating olive trees' perspectives, emphasizing the importance of diverse knowledge and methodological integration.

Contribution

It provides a case study demonstrating the practical application of MTHD techniques in agricultural tool design, highlighting methodological considerations and challenges.

Findings

Reconsideration of decentralization in MTHD is crucial.

Techniques like contact zone and plant interviews facilitate perspective-taking.

Integrating multiple knowledge types helps manage design tensions.

Abstract

Sustainability-focused design research is witnessing a change in approach with the emergence of More-than-human Design (MTHD), which challenges human-centered thinking by incorporating nonhuman perspectives into the design process. However, implementing MTHD presents challenges for design researchers and practitioners, such as understanding non-verbal species. Despite the techniques developed to facilitate such an understanding (e.g. contact zone), the growing literature on MTHD lacks studies reflecting on how these techniques are utilized in the design process. In this paper, we present a case study on designing olive harvesting tools from a MTH lens, where designers used contact zone, plant interviews, plant persona, and experience map to explore the perspectives of olive trees and incorporate them into ideas in collaboration with farmers and agricultural engineers. The results indicate the significance of reconsidering decentralization in MTHD from the standpoint of entanglements among techniques and incorporating various knowledge types to manage tensions arising from perspective shifts.