Interview with my dad

Design Research and Literacy – A Personal and Transdisciplinary Inquiry

Interviewee: Father of the researcher (Name withheld)

Interviewer: Tanja Ubert

Date: 10-10-2023

Format: One-on-one in-depth interview

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Background and Motivation

This interview holds personal significance for the researcher. It explores the life experiences of her father, who is functionally illiterate and has relied on oral culture and workarounds throughout his life. As a daughter, the researcher has assisted him with administrative tasks since the age of 14, initially believing it was due to formality—but later understanding it stemmed from illiteracy.

This interview became more than a research activity; it became a relational design moment, strengthening the father-daughter relationship through shared vulnerability and storytelling.

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Illiteracy and Work: Navigating Through Oral and Embodied Knowledge

When asked how illiteracy affected him, the interviewee explained that early in his career—before widespread digitization—oral transmission of knowledge and manual labor allowed him to function effectively. He adapted to reading and writing tasks by relying on memory, dictation, and excuses (e.g., “forgetting glasses”).

This echoes Polyani’s concept of tacit knowledge—knowledge that is hard to verbalize but critical in practice (Polanyi, 1966). His ability to succeed in his trade despite illiteracy reflects embodied expertise, often undervalued in literate and administrative systems.

The informal mentoring of apprentices and support from co-workers functioned as a substitute network, enabling continued success despite structural literacy barriers—demonstrating distributed knowledge systems (Suchman, 2007).

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Shame, Stigma, and Hidden Labor

The interviewee described the deep shame and stigma attached to illiteracy, noting he even pretended to read the newspaper in front of his children to be a “good example.” This reveals the emotional labor of maintaining appearances in a literate society—an often overlooked aspect of user experience in public services (Bannon, 2011).

He avoided disclosing his condition due to fear of judgment, highlighting how social narratives around intelligence and literacy exclude those with different cognitive pathways (see Kuznetsov & Paulos, 2010 on “designing for the self”).

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Trigger for Change: Life Transitions and Identity

The interviewee began literacy lessons after a serious workplace accident and the news of his daughter’s pregnancy. These life events marked a transformative threshold, what Etienne Wenger (1998) would describe as a moment of identity renegotiation.

Learning he had severe dyslexia reframed his self-perception—from being “stupid” to being someone with a diagnosable and supportable condition. This is a powerful illustration of how language and diagnosis shape personal narratives and alter how individuals are treated by systems and people.

He said:

“When you say ‘I cannot read or write,’ people think you’re stupid. When you say ‘I have dyslexia,’ they see you’re smart, just different.”

This distinction is critical for inclusive design researchers—labels and discourse deeply affect the user’s sense of self and how systems respond to them.

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The Role of Family and Informal Networks

The support of his daughter, who assisted with bureaucratic forms and digital systems, exemplifies how informal, intergenerational networks are often invisible infrastructures supporting individuals outside formal systems. These networks often go unrecognized in service and policy design.

Design researchers must not only co-create with users but also with care networks that form the user’s ecosystem—an insight aligned with Design Justice frameworks (Costanza-Chock, 2020).

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Reflections on Roles and Expertise

This interview also reframes who holds expertise. The father, although illiterate, held high practical, emotional, and strategic intelligence. His life journey illustrates how traditional measures of “literacy” fail to capture experiential and embodied expertise.

The researcher, formerly only a family member, transitioned into a researcher-caregiver hybrid role, which aligns with Sanders & Stappers’ (2008) discussion on users as co-designers and designers as facilitators of transformation.

This shift from researching about to researching with (and sometimes researching through) highlights the changing identity of design researchers in socially engaged contexts.

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Key Takeaways

• Network-building begins at home. Sometimes the richest insights come from vulnerable, honest exchanges within one’s personal network.
• Redefine expertise. Literacy is only one form of knowledge. Others, like tacit, embodied, or social knowledge, must be designed with and for (Polanyi, 1966; Suchman, 2007).
• Design with emotional and cultural sensitivity. Shame and stigma are design constraints just as real as technical limitations (Kuznetsov & Paulos, 2010).
• Language matters. Diagnoses and terminology influence self-perception and system response (Costanza-Chock, 2020).
• Roles are fluid. Designers are often caregivers, mediators, or learners—and users are often teachers and designers in their own right (Sanders & Stappers, 2008).

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References

Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge University Press.

Bannon, L. (2011). Reimagining HCI: Toward a More Human-Centered Perspective. Interactions.

Costanza-Chock, S. (2020). Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need. MIT Press.

Kuznetsov, S., & Paulos, E. (2010). Designing for the Self: Making User Participation Personal in HCI. ACM.

Polanyi, M. (1966). The Tacit Dimension. Routledge.

Sanders, E. B.-N., & Stappers, P. J. (2008). Co-creation and the New Landscapes of Design. CoDesign.

Suchman, L. (2007). Human-Machine Reconfigurations: Plans and Situated Actions. Cambridge University Press.