OCAD University

About: OCAD University is a education organization based out in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Context (language use) & Visualization. The organization has 150 authors who have published 193 publications receiving 1539 citations. The organization is also known as: Ontario College of Art and Design University & OCAD U.

Systemic Design Principles for Complex Social Systems

Abstract: Systems theory and design thinking both share a common orientation to the desired outcomes of complex problems, which is to effect highly-leveraged, well-reasoned, and preferred changes in situations of concern. Systems thinking (resulting from its theoretical bias) promotes the understanding of complex problem situations independently of solutions, and demonstrates an analytical bias. Design disciplines demonstrate an action-oriented or generative bias toward creative solutions, but design often ignores deep understanding as irrelevant to future-oriented change. While many practitioners believe there to be compatibility between design and systems theory, the literature shows very few examples of their resolution in theoretical explanation or first principles. This work presents a reasoned attempt to reconcile the shared essential principles common to both fundamental systems theories and design theories, based on meta-analyses and a synthesis of shared principles. An argument developed on current and historical scholarly perspectives is illuminated by relevant complex system cases demonstrating the shared principles. While primarily oriented to complex social systems, the shared systemic design principles apply to all complex design outcomes, product and service systems, information systems, and social organizational systems.

Bodystorming as embodied designing

Abstract: environment where the product will be employed results in a better user interface. You will be exposed to real-world situations such as loud environments, the rush crowd, work-role conflicts, all of which impact design decisions. A second bodystorming methodology is what we call “strong prototyping” in the space or place in which the product or service will be used. Let’s say you have been hired to build a new handheld device for use on submarines. You should construct and model the hallways, spaces, and structures (out of cardboard perhaps) to simulate a submarine environment. The idea is to test your handheld in the “replicated” environment. Perhaps it doesn’t have all the properties of the actual field setting, but it should consider the more important aspects. Then you can change constraints such as lighting, or how easy it is to walk through differently sized doorways/passageways while trying to use the handheld. The third methodological variant and most popular form An emerging design practice developed by natural extension of the mode of participatory design known as “bodystorming” is often considered a form of prototyping in context, and is enacted instead as a technology directly supporting collaborative embodied cognition. This “art form” of bodystorming, which departs radically from ideational methods, is referred to as “embodied storming” to distinguish it from other forms called bodystorming that are already contested and because it is supported by theories of embodied cognition. Our emphasis on immediacy and tacit experience breaks with the ideational and theatrical modes of acting out technology scenarios. Embodied storming posits that we ought to first create the experience of physical performance, not to ideate but to enact experiential awareness. This orientation postpones the particulars of designed forms, functions, and even ideas. We believe that “premature ideation” exposes participants to the problems of groupthink, the fixation bias known as following Klein’s “garden path” of sense-making [1]. The goal of embodied storming is not just the instrumental formulation of better experience ideas in the context of their use, but we also aim to enact a tangible understanding of the entanglements and actions of human activity in possible future situations. We have found this generative, enacted mode of participant observation creates the conditions for the collective expression of working out problems, of sense-making situations and unmaking them, by performing actions in simulated settings and occasions in real time.

Exploratory Analysis of Time-Series with ChronoLenses

Abstract: Visual representations of time-series are useful for tasks such as identifying trends, patterns and anomalies in the data. Many techniques have been devised to make these visual representations more scalable, enabling the simultaneous display of multiple variables, as well as the multi-scale display of time-series of very high resolution or that span long time periods. There has been comparatively little research on how to support the more elaborate tasks associated with the exploratory visual analysis of timeseries, e.g., visualizing derived values, identifying correlations, or discovering anomalies beyond obvious outliers. Such tasks typically require deriving new time-series from the original data, trying different functions and parameters in an iterative manner. We introduce a novel visualization technique called ChronoLenses, aimed at supporting users in such exploratory tasks. ChronoLenses perform on-the-fly transformation of the data points in their focus area, tightly integrating visual analysis with user actions, and enabling the progressive construction of advanced visual analysis pipelines.