ON THE POTENTIAL OF USING PHENOMENOLOGICAL METHODS IN THE RESEARCH OF BARRIER SITUATIONS IN UNIVERSAL DESIGN

Abstract

The article is focused on the study of individuals' perception of (exclusive) objects in the environment. The paper also describes the potential of extrapolating the phenomenological method to the field of design science, since design is perceived as a social and intersubjective process. The article proposes the idea that phenomenological methodology, unlike analytical methodology, (focuses on the study of) the "causes", the meanings of the design object and also explores the meaning-producing constructions that influence the formation of the object in the process of its emergence. This article suggests that by studying the contextual history of the process of creating a certain universal design object, rather than the finished (completed) object, it is possible to identify the meaning-producing factors, characteristic contextual features of the social (or physical) environment that influenced a particular designer's decision at different stages of the design process. Phenomenological methods have the potential to become a valuable tool for researching the phenomena of universal design, in particular for the analysis of barrier situations.