Showing papers in "Design Journal in 2016"

Service Design: From Insight to Implementation

Abstract: SERVICE DESIGN From Insight to Implementation is a book written from the experience and perspectives of three of the key practitioners in the field of Service Design. They start out by describing t...

Natural Self-grown Fashion From Bacterial Cellulose: A Paradigm Shift Design Approach In Fashion Creation

Abstract: The fashion industry is regarded as responsible for causing soil erosion, water pollution, and large-scale carbon dioxide emissions and waste because of the many production processes it involves. This paper reports on a study that explored the concept of future fashion, which uses materials that grow directly from natural and renewable sources (i.e. biofashion from bacterial cellulose). In this study, various types of bacterial cellulose were studied and evaluated. Green tea cellulose was identified as the most desirable for fashion creation. The cellulosic pellicles of green tea grown in various culture solution concentrations and incubation times were compared for an optimal result. A theoretical and practical framework was established to explore bacterial cellulose for use in fashion creation. Successful realization of natural self-grown fashion (SGF) has tremendous creative and practical potential, as well as a profound ecological effect on the fashion industry and the environment.

Architects’ Approaches to Healing Environment in Designing a Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centre

Abstract: The built environment is increasingly recognized to influence people and their well-being. The related concept of Healing Environment is adopted by the Maggie’s Centres, which provide psychosocial ...

The Cultural Dimension of Design Driven Innovation. A Perspective from the Fashion Industry

Abstract: Design, as discipline and practice, is referred to as the interpretation of contemporary culture, both in its tangible and intangible expressions. The design practice acts as an agent that can detect cultural evolutions, identify their drivers and patterns of change, and then design a possible new cultural environment, which can embed the newly-found meanings and drive the innovation of products and services. Through a literature review, the paper introduces the notions of ‘contemporary cultures’ and ‘culture intensive goods’, investigating the paradigmatic shift from technology- and market-driven innovation to design- and culture-driven innovation. Within this theoretical framework, the paper will focus on fashion, one of the most advanced culture intensive industries, as a peculiar case which has built methodologies and tools to draw innovation trajectories, starting from the reading of socio-cultural and economical contexts. In particular, the paper will discuss how cultural contents are embedd...

Co-designing for Sustainability: Strategizing Community Carbon Emission Reduction Through Socio-ecological Innovation

Abstract: Designing for sustainability requires us to intentionally and creatively explore and implement radical changes in social as well as environmental arenas. This paper reflects on an interdisciplinary, action research project in which we applied principles and tools of co-creation to facilitate knowledge mobilization between three diverse stakeholder groups: community groups, local authorities (LAs) and academics from diverse disciplines. Our goal was the development of a Community Engagement Strategy for Carbon Emission Reduction for a Scottish Local Authority. Our methodological approach included ethnographic and participatory methods; seminars; strategy prototyping; and shared governance processes. It was concluded that our project provoked ‘social innovation’ by catalysing a value shift in the organizations involved, but that the concept of ‘socio-ecological innovation’ would be more useful in designing for sustainability. This project demonstrates the strategic role designers can play in transce...

Critical Design Practice: Theoretical Perspectives and Methods of Engagement

Abstract: As interest in critical and speculative design grows in academic and cultural contexts, this paper outlines theoretical perspectives and methods used in critical design practice. The paper introduces these perspectives through a discussion on Para-functionality, Post-optimal design and the Aesthetics of Use as concepts developed to explain how the practice operates. It discusses how critical design is perceived as a form of design research. It argues that critical design practice is not objective or explanatory, but focuses on inter-subjectivity and proposition. In this context, design aims to generate debate, where the purposive function of the design is discursive. The paper discusses how the methods used in critical design practice contribute to research by exploring how the open-ended and relational characteristic of work produced by critical designers is embraced by disciplines external to product design. The paper concludes by outlining the contribution that critical design practice makes to...

Enhancing Collective Creative Design: An Exploratory Study on the Influence of Static and Dynamic Personas in a Virtual Environment

Abstract: In this paper, we propose to extend an existing method, ‘the personas’, and to develop a ‘dynamic persona’ in a virtual environment. To determine the interest of such a dynamic persona, we compared the influence of dynamic vs static personas in groups composed of two professionals (a designer and an ergonomist) who had to deal with either a dynamic or a static persona, while being engaged in a creative task. Their creative performances were also compared with those of 11 groups of three lay-participants who performed the same task, in the same virtual environment, with the same communication modality (i.e. chat). Moreover, we analysed the quality of collaboration in groups with personas and their level of empathy toward the dynamic or static personas. Results tend to be in favour of the dynamic persona condition, concerning the fluency and originality of ideas, and with regard to quality of collaboration and empathy.

Design Thinking and Innovation: Synthesising Concepts of Knowledge Co-creation in Spaces of Professional Development

Abstract: This paper explores how design thinking connects to concepts of knowledge creation and innovation. A case study of a knowledge sharing network in the social services sector is used to illustrate how design thinking supports Ba, the spaces for knowledge creation. Further exploration of the four enabling conditions for Ba resulted in delineation of two distinct types: relational and structural. Relational enablers support three groups of enabling conditions: interaction, shared values and communication. It is proposed that design thinking aligns well with relational enabling conditions for Ba to create the ideal spaces for knowledge creation. The group of structural enablers can assist or obstruct change and relate to the culture and management approaches of an organization, which may or may not be assisted by design thinking. However, to ensure that design thinking is not undermined, and innovation is achieved, the presence of an appropriate structural enabler is critical for success.

User Experience Design: Creating Design Users Really Love

Abstract: A few years ago, when people at parties asked me what I do, I found it so complicated and off-putting to explain User Experience Design (UXD) that I just lied by saying I do web design. In fact, si...

Attachment, Durability and the Environmental Impact of Digital DIY

Abstract: The recent popularization of amateur design practices and digital fabrication tools has been accompanied by a vast discourse announcing the emergence of a new production and consumption paradigm. This new participatory model has been assigned, among other benefits, environmental advantages over more traditional ways of manufacture and trade. However, most of these expectations are based on the possible rather than the actual usage of digital tools. This article questions the assumption that digital DIY is substituting mass production with a more sustainable model and presents a different panorama of the implications of digital DIY based on an ethnographic study of the FabLab Amsterdam users.

Sensory Perception of Material Texture in Consumer Products

Abstract: A more informed understanding of information about human sensory perception of materials is playing an increasingly important role in the selection and combination of materials within manufactured products. An initial perception of a product may be based on sensory properties such as colour, texture, sound, smell, and taste. Designers use textures within most of their design practices and understand that texture and texture combination can have a strong visual and tactile impact. The visual aesthetics of a particular material and the surface texture information are signalled through visual and tactile feedback. This contributes to how the user perceives the ‘material representation’ (which is defined as: the perceived images, properties, meanings, and values of a material in the human–product interface under a specific set of environmental conditions).Prior scholarship is limited with regard to information about the sensory and aesthetic characteristics of materials. Hence previous work reported b...

A New ‘T’ for Textiles: Training Design Researchers to Inspire Buying Office Staff Towards Sustainability at Hennes and Mauritz (H&M)

Abstract: The paper is based on a training programme given to researchers in the Textiles Environment Design (TED) project at the University of the Arts London (UAL). The programme took place over three years (September 2010 to October 2013) whilst the researchers were engaged as consultants and researchers for Hennes and Mauritz (H&M) and the Sustainable Fashion Academy (SFA) in Stockholm, Sweden. The project was developed as part of the Mistra Future Fashion research consortium, which aims to bring scientists and designers together to find sustainable and profitable industry solutions. The TED’s TEN sustainable design strategies for textiles and fashion was the framework for the Sustainable Design Inspiration (SDI) work at H&M – a broad and holistic approach to redesigning products including materials, process, systems, services, consumer behaviour and activism.

Possibility-Driven Spins in the Open Design Community

Abstract: This case study is a description of the open design community. The study identifies the main characteristics and methods of operation that frame and drive activities in the community. Qualitative research methods were mainly employed to gather and analyse the data. Work in the open design community is collaborative; it is a symbiosis of interests between profit-making companies and members of the community resulting in win–win situations. A word spin in the title of this paper indicates fast turns in the practices of the open design community. The study also proposes a potential direction for the future development of self-sufficient design and production of artefacts, platforms and services in an almost untouched area of scientific research.

A Framework for the Experience of Product Aesthetics

Abstract: An important part of design expertise is the ability to design products that produce aesthetic affection. The design literature provides different explanations of aesthetic experience, yet its exact meaning remains unclear. This paper addresses this topic by developing a framework for understanding the aesthetic experience of products. The framework contributes to the design literature by: (1) connecting the main processes involved in the aesthetic experience; (2) clarifying how product experiences can be affected by factors other than the product in focus; and (3) deriving different types of experiences of aesthetic emotions. Finally, the implications of these contributions for practice and future research are discussed.

Benefits of Service Level Prototyping

Abstract: This paper discusses the impact of service design by zooming in on the case of service prototyping. It is suggested that prototyping services is different from prototyping in other disciplines and shows how by discussing prototyping on different levels. On the service level of prototyping, a technique called ‘service walkthrough’ can be a way to understand whole service experiences. The service walkthrough was used in three cases. On an abstract level, what the service walkthrough adds is a technique for service design that allows exploration of the relationship between touchpoints such as composition, continuity, and consistency. In the cases studied, the walkthroughs increased empathy for different roles in the services while generating insights about e.g. technical requirements, transitions between touchpoints, and expectations at various moments of the service. The paper ends with a discussion about the relationship between touchpoints and the potential scope of the service walkthrough technique.

Digital Design Sketching using the Tablet PC

Abstract: As digital sketching continues to emerge as an alternative to paper-based techniques, a qualitative, triangulated longitudinal study of nine-months duration was undertaken to explore the capabilities of the tablet Personal Computer (PC) to support portable sketching during industrial/product design activity. The methodology involved the unrestricted use of tablet PCs by 16 final year undergraduate industrial/product design students for an entire academic year, with data collection through a sketching exercise (participant and expert questionnaires), design exercise (questionnaire), focus group (coding and clustering) and final questionnaire. The conclusions indicate that the tablet PC represents a significant development in the support of sketching capability by increasing confidence which can have a positive impact on the generation of design ideas.

Radical Innovation by Theoretical Abstraction – A Challenge for The User-centred Designer

Abstract: It is generally accepted that scientific disciplines such as psychology, sociology, and anthropology contribute beneficially to design by providing understanding of users’ needs, experiences, and desires. Arguably, however, these disciplines have more to contribute, because they include theories and models that can be applied as design frames and principles. More specifically, goal-setting, visualization, thematization, and conceptual reconfiguration are general mechanisms through which theories translate into design contributions. Actualizing radical design solutions via these mechanisms is discussed: theories provide appropriate means of abstraction, which allows ‘distance’ from user data; departure from the existing design and user paradigms toward ‘what has not yet been imagined’ is thereby possible. These suggestions draw from and are exemplified by a ship bridge design case.

A Design Framework to Build Sustainable Societies: Using Happiness as Leverage

Abstract: Increasingly, design is being forced to re-examine the role it plays in the happiness of people and the sustainability of society. This paper proposes the ‘Design for Happiness’ Framework as an approach to address this and it is illustrated through a design study. The design methods, process and characteristics of products and services capable of contributing in a positive and holistic way to these issues are discussed. The findings demonstrate that the framework encourages the reinterpretation of the relationship between products, services, and users; approaching design from a new perspective where the characteristics of what is meaningful for people sits at its core. The results are innovative systemic designs with high potential to contribute to happier sustainable societies.

What Drives Socially Responsible Design in Organizations?: Empirical Evidence from South Korea

Abstract: This paper presents the results of a study that investigates designers’ underlying motivations for socially responsible decision-making within an organization and identifies the empirical link between the level of designers’ awareness of corporate social responsibility (CSR)-related issues, the degree of firms’ design management capacities and their perceived performance in terms of socially responsible design (SRD) in organizations. Using large samples targeted across the range of designers in South Korea, the current study empirically supports that SRD decisions are determined in large part by important interaction between the designers’ true beliefs and the firm’s level of CSR. Our results also show that a firm’s design management capacity plays a significant role in integrating environmental and social issues into product and service development and achieving better SRD performance and ultimately CSR goals within organizations.

Ranking of Design Journals Based on Results of the UK Research Excellence Framework: Using REF as Referee

Abstract: Design researchers disseminate their work through many outlets. Journals have been, and continue to be, a vital conduit by which research methods and results are reported. Journal paper authors want their work to be published in the best possible titles, but ranking of journals is notoriously difficult and always controversial. This paper takes a new approach to finding a referee to rank journal popularity: analysis of the results of the 2014 UK Research Excellence Framework (REF), Art and Design panel. Institutional submissions that scored best in terms of research output ‘originality, significance and rigour’ had the highest proportion of print (journal and book) outputs. The journals in which papers selected by submitting institutions were published were analysed to determine the most common titles. When filtered to include the highest ranked ‘design’ submissions, the most popular design-focused journal titles were The Design Journal, Applied Ergonomics, Ergonomics, Journal of Design Research a...

Creating and testing a model-driven framework for accessible user-centric design

Abstract: Despite growing interest in user-centric design (UCD), there is limited discussion and critique of how to implement such an approach in a commercial design environment. This paper examines the approach taken to gain knowledge of product use in order to evaluate a framework for user-research that draws on UCD theory through a number of commercial case studies. User-centric enquiry must fit into the design process where the aim is to create commercially viable output economically and efficiently, and where errors resulting from insufficient user consideration are mitigated cost-effectively; something that is rarely discussed in literature. This paper documents a university-affiliated design team’s efforts to guide user-led design practice and product insight acquisition with the implementation of a model-driven, user-centred, design approach.

The aesthetic experience of product design : a case study of the consumption of earphones in Hong Kong

Abstract: Aesthetics is omnipresent in all aspects of our life, and an aesthetic perspective of design concerns the living emotions, feelings, and shared passions among consumers and designers. We empirically investigate how the meanings that consumers infer from earphone designs reveal their personal notion of the ‘aesthetic’ in everyday life and how this notion affects the aesthetic judgement of consumers and their preferences for product designs. This study provides product designers with the implications of comprehensive knowledge behind the design in the form of a story to engage consumers into learning, understanding, and associating their consumption experience with both private and social meanings that constitute the aestheticization of everyday life.

Towards Design Recipes to Curb the Clothing Carbohydrate Binge

Abstract: The clothing industry is currently characterized by a fast metabolism, utilizing many resource inputs yet creating few productive environmental or social outputs. The concept of fashion is utilized by the clothing industry like an excess dose of carbohydrates, yielding a short-term high followed by an energy deficit that can only be satisfied by consuming again. The use of emotional attachment as design strategy may enhance the sustainable consumption of clothing, but contextual understanding is needed. This qualitative study explored the contextual nature of clothing attachment, specifically examining the potential of this strategy to meet sustainability aims. The researchers use this investigation to propose two sustainable design recipes: designing for continual engagement, and designing for end-of-life value.

Reversing the Design-Marketing Hierarchy: Mapping New Roles and Responsibilities in ‘Designer-Led’ New Product Development

Abstract: This article seeks to discern and chart recent flux in the territory of practice of the design profession. Whereas in the past the voice of marketing was paramount in the new product development (NPD) process, today the designer’s role is evolving. New approaches to business, manufacture, and consumption are propagating an ascendancy of design and the design profession. The extended role, remit, and responsibilities of designers are here examined. Using a qualitative case study methodology in the context of NPD, the research uncovers a distinct shift towards ‘designer-led’ NPD. The transition is manifest in three key areas: (1) design involvement spanning the NPD cycle; (2) an increased breadth and complexity of design problems; (3) new value in managing the people dimension of the process. These changes are expanding the dimensions of the designer’s remit. In this paper the notion of ‘designer-led’ NPD is identified, defined, and described. A model is developed to assist designers navigating the ...

Supporting Design Dialogue through a Communication Framework Using Four Layers of Abstraction

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to describe and discuss a proposed framework that enables and encourages a robust communication context for the design process. Sustainability can be seen as a wicked problem, therefore creating, maintaining and managing a consensus during the design process is a necessary requirement. Consequently, dialogue is central to this. The framework proposes the use of four different layers of abstraction of information in order to facilitate the creation of shared meaning through dialogue. The four levels selected for this model are: the meaning level, the semantic level, the syntactic level and the artefact level. Communication modalities and the types of concepts are different at each level. The necessity for this framework stems from the wide range of emerging approaches to design and their myriad connections to the notion of sustainability. The proposed framework fosters the creation of a platform that allows exchange, evolution and synthesis.

Categorization of Hong Kong modern males with regard to predictors of menswear design preferences in terms of physical and socio-psychological dimensions

Abstract: Proportional grading, which offers the closest fit by producing various sizes, is commonly used in sizing systems for mass production today. However, wearers’ socio-psychological concerns are not taken into account during the development of the system, which may churn out ineffective fits. This study provides knowledge of menswear evaluation by taking into account men’s physical and socio-psychological dimensions.This study successfully categorizes modern males according to their preferences of menswear, concerning the predictors of menswear design preferences in physical (i.e. Body Mass Index [BMI]) and psychological dimensions (i.e. menswear functions and menswear involvement). Subjects were divided into three clusters: (1) Fashion & Masculine; (2) Low-Function Value; and (3) Camouflage and Comfort; in which they were identified as having different clothing preferences as they had unique characteristics in clothing functions and levels of fashion involvement. The results suggested that modern me...

Tactics of Cultural Adaptation: Design and Production Characteristics of Toys in Istanbul

Abstract: Toys, more than being objects of play, reflect society’s relation to globalization on different layers, manifesting themselves in typologies of toys, their production methods and the industrial organization of the sector, as well as in the exploitation of cultural references in new product development (NPD). Contemporary theories of globalization state that globalization does not only work in a homogenizing and standardizing way but the global dynamics are transformed and adapted by local actors. In the encounter of the Global and the Local, different modes of articulation emerge in addition to the dichotomic responses of acceptance and rejection. In that manner, toys embody an important issue of research, acting as the physical manifestations of local and global dynamics. This paper aims to understand how design and production characteristics of toys have been adapted to the changing socio-economic characteristics of Turkey and Istanbul in particular. Starting from the first instances of systemat...

An A to Z of Contemporary Design

Abstract: In 2001, Hal Foster wrote his paper ‘The ABCs of Contemporary Design’ as a supplement (part glossary, part guide) to his book Design and Crime (and Other Diatribes). Foster’s ABCs paper paints design as being a near-perfect circuit of production and consumption. Foster claims that critical reflection is outdated, which means design is a consumption-based system and as such design’s role is largely to feed capitalism, let it flourish, and meet the demands of the masses. Over a decade on from Foster’s critical analysis of design, however, it appears that design is in the middle of yet another series of crises ranging from disciplinary challenges where the profession of design appears to be struggling with its identity, to epistemological and conceptual challenges where the zeitgeist of design thinking and the widespread democratization of the discipline would have us believe that ‘we are all designers’, and where the remit of design is expanding into ever more far flung areas that cover communications, services, interactions and strategies. It seems timely and fitting, therefore, that we need a new examination of the contemporary world of design. This assessment of contemporary design is apposite given that we currently inhabit a world that we have all combined to create that is seriously unprepared to deal with the mounting crises we face. Collectively, we are destroying some of the most important features of society that we claim to hold most dear (i.e. our planet, our society, and our spirit). Our ecological crisis, wherein we continue to deplete and degrade our natural capital on a massive scale, using up the equivalent of 1.5 planets to meet our current consumption has resulted in one third of our agricultural land disappearing over the last 40 years, which will inevitably lead to food supply crises and an anticipated doubling of food prices by 2030. Our present social crisis sees nearly 2.5 billion people on our planet living in abject poverty. There have been many successes at lifting people out of poverty, but this figure has not changed much over the past few decades. Furthermore, the world is currently in a spiritual crisis where, according to World Health Organization statistics, three times as many people die from suicide as die from homicide or in wars. These global dimensions are collectively creating results that nobody wants and may well constitute the most significant failure of our time. Building on Foster’s ABC template, the authors present a new critical insight from A to Z into the current design situation where issues of professionalism in design, the global financial meltdown, and the rapid adoption of digital technologies have all modified the models of design thought and action. We suggest readers see this paper as a development of Foster’s original supplement.

An Investigation into the Relationship between Tutors’ Ideological Styles and their Students’ Learning Achievements of Educational Objectives: An Empirical Study of Digital Media Design Education in Taiwan

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to explore the potential influence of the ideologies of tutors engaged in the education of digital media design in Taiwan on their students’ achievements of the educational objectives. Empirical method was conducted in the study. The research data are collected from 330 students, which represents approximately 15% of students majoring in digital media design. Each student was selected by stratified sampling from seven different universities in Taiwan, in terms of geographic location, public and/or private school, university and/or polytechnic institution, using a questionnaire-based approach. The data were analysed using SEM. By using the statistical analysis tools provided in AMOS, a total of five path models are constructed. In conclusion, the results indicate that tutors must be aware of the effect of their ideologies on their students’ learning achievements and should adopt different ideological styles as the situation dictates.

Evolving Paths: Undergraduate Design Education through Graduate and Generative Research with a Particular Focus on Sustainability

Abstract: Design considerations that take into account the diverse issues of sustainability have become a central source of inspiration for third-year design students in the Department of Industrial Design at Middle East Technical University. These considerations include the development of products that can evolve in line with local needs, product maintenance, repair and upgrade, and the effective use of resources and have been integrated into various design projects relating to diverse product sectors (e.g. small household appliances, bathroom tiles and accessories). While engaged in these projects, the graduate students focused on and developed a generative design research method and an innovative idea generation tool that helped the design students better understand and incorporate these considerations into the idea generation phase of the design process. This paper presents suggestions for and insights into the means of bringing together undergraduate education and graduate research by providing example...