Designing for perceptual crossing: designing and comparing three behaviors

Perceptual crossing is the reciprocal interplay of perceiving while being perceived. In this paper we discuss the last iteration of our ongoing research project on designing for perceptive qualities in systems of interactive products. We describe the design of explorative behavior in an artifact to enable the artifact and a person to engage in perceptual crossing. The explorative behavior is compared to the following and active behavior, the results of two earlier iterations. Through the iterations we formulated, applied and evaluated design relevant knowledge in the form of seven design notions. These notions inform design-researchers and design-practitioners on how to design for perceptive qualities in systems of interactive products. Here we specifically focus on how the artifact detects active perceptive behavior of a person, and how the artifact becomes aware of bygone perception and anticipates on future perception. An experiment shows how participants preferred the resulting explorative behavior that is closest to our theoretical framework based on phenomenology.

CHI '13 Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 

The play grid

In this paper we propose The Play Grid, a model for systemizing different play types. The approach is psychological by nature and the actual Play Grid is based, therefore, on two pairs of fundamental and widely acknowledged distinguishing characteristics of the ego, namely: extraversion vs. introversion and agency vs. communion. The former pair concerns a person's orientation towards either inner or outer reality, while the latter has to do with orientation towards autonomy vs. being a part of something. When placing these pairs of characteristics on different axes and combining them, we arrive at the Play Grid. Thus, the model has four quadrants, each of them describing one of four play types: the Assembler, the Director, the Explorer, and the Improviser. It is our hope that the Play Grid can be a useful design tool for making entertainment products for children.

IDC '13 Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Interaction 

Human-centred design as a problem: Moving beyond anthropocentric innovation

Cambridge Academic Design Management conference 2013

People-Centred Desktop Design and Manufacture: a review of web enabled open source tools for localised community focused inclusive design

Design innovation no longer occurs within the 'silos of knowledge' located in individual disciplinary domains. With the developing social web, disciplinary boundaries are shifting, allowing for the establishment of open source co-creative communities that solve design problems at the local level. This paper argues that such changes may enhance inclusive design innovation through web facilitated communal approaches to design and innovation that is 'bottom up' rather than 'top down'. In this approach local communities have access to global tools, web based technologies and timely access to lead users facilitating innovative and localised design approaches. To show how this can be accomplished, this paper offers a review of the literature and published designs across a range of areas. The aim is to show how innovation occurs through web enabled localised design approaches and techniques that avoid the limitations and often, exclusionary approaches of traditional practices. It does this by showing how, digitally connected community based design allows for an inclusive, flexible, yet individualised approach to meeting specialised needs of local populations on a global scale. The paper concludes by exploring the future possibilities of impending approaches to people-centred interdisciplinary, practice based, collaborations by highlighting innovative methods and exemplary case studies.

Include Asia 2013: Global Challenges and Local Solutions in Inclusive Design, Hong Kong

User-centred Research-based Design of Futuristic Intensive Care Units

This paper discusses ergonomics and user-centred design approaches in health-services environments, specifically Intensive Care Units in Hospitals, through a design research project developed with Industrial Design master’s students. Initially, a review of the literature shows current approaches to ICU design, mainly from an architectural perspective. Current and futuristic visions for ICU spaces are illustrated through examples from architecture and science fiction movies. The concept of ‘very large scale integration’ within digital technologies is also discussed, as a basis for possible design directions. Subsequently, field work through user-observations, surveys and unstructured interviews of patients, family, and healthcare workers (mainly nurses and medical doctors) carried on at the Calvary John James Hospital and the Canberra Hospital are described, and main findings are summarized. Based on the previous research, tangible outcomes of this project also include some short-term solutions as well as futuristic conceptual design proposals.

8th International Conference on Design Principles and Practices

BALANCING FOOD VALUES: MAKING SUSTAINABLE CHOICES WITHIN COOKING PRACTICES

Within user-centred design and topics such as

persuasive design, pleasurable products, and

design for sustainable behaviour, there is a danger

of over-determining, pacifying or reducing

people’s diversity. Taking the case of sustainable

food, we have looked into the social aspects of

cooking at home, in specific related to the type of

food that is purchased. This paper describes what it

means for people to make more sustainable choices

in food shopping and how that can be mediated

while taking different ‘food values’ that household

members have into account. In a design

experiment, we developed a service for selecting

daily dinner meals while supporting choices of

sustainable food which reported on environmental

impact, health and nutrition values, and purchase

data. Through visualizations of alternative food

choices, the experiment provided a space for

households to negotiate food values, while opening

up possibilities for changing cooking practices.

Nordic Design Research Conference 2013

DISCURSIVE STRUCTURES OF INFORMAL CRITIQUE IN AN HCI DESIGN STUDIO

Critique has long been considered a benchmark of design education and practice, both as a way to  elicit feedback about design artifacts in the process of production and as a high-stakes assessment tool in academia. In this study, I investigate a specific form of critique between peers that emerges organically in the design studio apart from coursework or guidance of a professor. Based on intensive interviews and observations, this informal peer critique appears to elicit the design judgment of the individual designer in explicit ways, encouraging peers to follow new paths in their design process, while also verbalizing oftenimplicit design decisions that have already been  made. Implications for future research in academic  and professional practice are considered.   

Nordic Design Research Conference 2013

A user-centred design approach to electronic mobility devices for the visually impaired

With the rapid rate of advancements in navigational and object recognition
technology, many types of electronic mobility device have been developed
for the visually impaired (Roentgen et al., 2008). The devices can be categorised
into three main categories: hand-held devices that are aimed at obstacle
detection and orientation of obstacles, to ascertain a clear path (e.g. Ulrich &
Borenstein, 2001); devices that are essentially navigational systems (e.g. Katz
et al. 2012); other devices that are used to communicate direction, distance,
and/or a ‘map’ of the surroundings (e.g. Molton et al., 1998; Filipe et al., 2012).
However, most of these either remain in the prototype stage and fail to enter
the market, or are unpopular with users, largely due to the design approach
being technology-driven as opposed to user-centred. This study has investigated
the effectiveness of such devices and the needs of visually impaired
people via; a review of literature; conducting focus groups and interviews with
users; and circulating questionnaires to relevant healthcare professionals. The
study aimed to inform the development of a new device, that uses sensors and
actuators attached to headwear (see Figure 1 - note this version was originally
aimed at fire officers in smoke environments).
The findings recognised a requirement to detect and communicate physical
barriers that visually impaired people face, particularly when outdoors. User
needs varied, but commonly highlighted factors included reliability, simplicity
of use and training, cost, confidence and not masking other senses. The healthcare
professionals had a varying attitude to new technologies with many
preferring traditional solutions. They also highlighted the need to tailor any
solution to the needs of their clients. The functions, capabilities, and inherent
advantages and disadvantages of different technologies have been scrutinised
with regard to user needs and the prototype will now be developed further,
with these issues in mind.

D4H2013

Anticipating User eXperience with a Desired Product: The AUX framework

Positive user experience (UX) has become a key factor in designing interactive products. It
acts as a differentiator which can determine a product’s success on the mature market.
However, current UX frameworks and methods do not fully support the early stages of
product design and development. During these phases, assessment of UX is challenging as
no actual user-product interaction can be tested. This qualitative study investigated
anticipated user experience (AUX) to address this problem.
Using the co-discovery method, participants were asked to imagine a desired product,
anticipate experiences with it, and discuss their views with another participant. Fourteen
sub-categories emerged from the data, and relationships among them were defined through
co-occurrence analysis. These data formed the basis of the AUX framework which consists
of two networks which elucidate 1) how users imagine a desired product and 2) how they
anticipate positive experiences with that product. Through this AUX framework, important
factors in the process of imagining future products and experiences were learnt, including
the way in which these factors interrelate.
Focusing on and exploring each component of the two networks in the framework will
allow designers to obtain a deeper understanding of the required pragmatic and hedonic
qualities of product, intended uses of product, user characteristics, potential contexts of
experience, and anticipated emotions embedded within the experience. This understanding,
in turn, will help designers to better foresee users’ underlying needs and to focus on the
most important aspects of their positive experience. Therefore, the use of the AUX
framework in the early stages of product development will contribute to the design for
pleasurable UX.

DRS 2012 Bangkok

The Opportunity for Design-led Transport Futures

Transport is at the heart of some of today’s most significant societal grand challenges. It is
a truly wicked problem. While advances in technology have simplified movement around
the world, increased levels of commuting and aspirations of car ownership have impacted
on economies, the environment and public health. It is estimated that transport problems
cost the UK economy £45bn/year. The overdependence on personal, motorised forms of
private transport is unsustainable and is fuelling ill health and obesity
Addressing these issues requires a multidisciplinary, holistic approach – one that places
people at the heart of the solution, that enables better transport systems to develop that can
create new high-quality, better-connected living spaces and lives, and that can use
technology to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the movement of goods and
people.
With the amount of research being conducted in this area, there is an urgent need to
provide a framework which can organise activity and ensure that the outcomes from it are
user centred and lead to the design of better, more inclusive vehicles and systems. This
paper illustrates the way in which the Hexagon Spindle (H-S) model of ergonomics can be
used to assess the territory covered by current, user focused transport research. The final
section of the paper explores the importance of design led thinking in integrated transport.

DRS 2012 Bangkok

Masked Aversion - Walking and Staring Behaviour towards Stigmatizing Products

An encounter with a person using or wearing a potentially stigmatizing product is an
impacting experience that is the result of the artifact itself, the individual experiencing the
stigma, the observing bystanders and the cultural context in which the situation is set.
Using or wearing a potentially stigmatizing product might stimulate bystanders to
stereotype its user and arouse negative feelings or disgust, followed by avoidant behavior.
Gaining insight in the causative factors of this process could help to create awareness
amongst designers and assist them in overriding product related stigma.
The experiment on which this paper reports is a first attempt to measure the staring and
walking behavior of passers-by towards a research confederate who’s wearing a dust
mask. Two categories of parameters were deduced. The first deals with two aspects of the
staring behavior. The distance between a passer-by and the confederate on the moment of
visual perception assessed the perception delay. Staring behavior was also measured by
registering whether passers-by looked over their shoulders after passing the confederate.
The second category, containing the most important measurement, deals with the
registration of the closest interpersonal distance between the passer-by and the
confederate. The research was conducted on a sample of 87 male and 82 female
participants who were randomly assigned to three conditions, a no-mask reference
condition and two distinct mask typologies. The results suggest that passers-by did notice
the mask conditions significantly faster than the no-mask condition. The results also show a
difference in the interpersonal distance for the three conditions; passers-by did maintain a
significantly greater distance to the confederate with the dust mask.
This research presents a first step towards the development of a tool that can be indicative
of the potential ‘degree of stigmatization’ of product concepts in an early phase of the
design process.

DRS 2012 Bangkok

The Evergreen Approach to Design Research: Maximizing the value of user experience data

Design research projects are often framed around specific objectives, for
example, product initiatives or marketing strategies. Due to limited budgets
and tight timeframes, most design research projects are narrowly focused,
isolated inquiries into specific activities, products, services or phases of the
development process. An ethnographic approach to design research can
provide a holistic understanding of users, their routines, motivations, and
beliefs that extend beyond the original research intent and provide a much
broader view on customer needs and business opportunities. Learning to
extend the utility of research data beyond the scope of the initial project can
become a great organizational asset – one that grows over time.
Using examples from recent projects that utilized data from previous
research, this paper discusses ways to stretch the value of ethnographic
data beyond its original intent, making it “evergreen.” It examines how well
focused research objectives, rigorous data collection, and systematic coding
can create a “wellspring of knowledge” to which an organization can
repeatedly return. Moreover, this paper addresses the important changes to
corporate culture and work processes that are vital to maximizing the value
of design research.

DRS 2012 Bangkok

Designing for the Other

This paper discusses a pilot study into whether the introduction of the concept of the
‘Other’ (after Said 1991) is useful in broadening the conceptual understanding and
empathy of first year industrial design students and thus move them away from a position of
an ‘I methodology’ of design.
The concept was introduced via a lecture delivered to Coventry University students and
impact was measured by the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis 1980).
A research group (who received the lecture) and a control group (who did not) completed
the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) over a three-week period. Students were also
tasked with choosing a ‘persona’ most like themselves from specially developed ‘persona’
cards.
Analysis showed that although the students scored more highly on three IRI subscales in
terms of averages, a mean score analysis produced inconclusive results. However, there
were indications that the concept of the ‘Other’ did have an impact on the research group
in terms of persona card choices, in that this group was more likely to step outside gender
boundaries.
Therefore the findings from this pilot study proved inconclusive in determining whether the
concept of the ‘Other’ had a positive impact on design students’ conceptual understanding
and empathy towards the end user, and thus it is not possible to assess whether it can
enhance their ability to move away from a position of ‘I methodology’ design.
Nonetheless, the pilot study did highlight the need for a more rigorous research framework,
in that more emphasis is needed to both develop the concept of empathy as it pertains to
design students and, perhaps, the concomitant development of a ‘bespoke’ measurement
tool, coupled with a more targeted approach to student participation.

DRS 2012 Bangkok

System Site Patient: A three-tiered methodological approach to constructing holistic understanding of the user through design research

This paper argues that the methods and methodologies used to conduct user research often
provide a singular view of the user. It aims to demonstrate that by combining the strengths
of three different research methodologies into a structured, correlative research platform
we can create a rich, more holistic understanding of our users. Using a three-tiered
methodological approach to research the cancer patient experience, we investigated
patient anxiety and the emotional impact that curative radiation therapy has on these
individuals. Our methodology, comprised of methods taken from quantitative, qualitative,
and design research approaches, was designed to construct a research platform that would
allow us to gather quantifiable data about our patient population while also using more
qualitative approaches to gain a deeper understanding of the individuals’ patient
experience. We used patient questionnaires as our quantitative method, user observations
and interviews as our qualitative methods, and design probe kits as our design method.
Each method was chosen because of its ability to provide us with a different perspective on
the patients’ clinical experience. By structuring these methods around the same shared
research question, we were able to find correlative relationships between the data collected
from each, despite their different methodological approaches. This paper demonstrates that
our three-tiered methodology provides a deep understanding of the user experience, from a
systems level view down to that of the patient. In conclusion, this paper argues that it is
important for design researches to select methods that build upon each other and provide
different perspectives of the user, in order to create a holistic understanding of the user
experience.

DRS 2012 Bangkok

Comparison of Designers’ Intended Messages and Users’ Constructed Messages Communicated through Visual Qualities of Furniture

This paper presents an empirical study into product form perception within the context of
communication. The study was driven by the main research question; ‘do users perceive the
same meaning from product appearance as designers intended, or is there a level of
mismatch?’ The emphasis is on meanings attributed to the visual domain of product form,
and more specifically the degree of correspondence between messages designers intend
users to receive and the messages that users actually construct. An empirical approach is
taken to contribute to the field, which is presently dominated by well-founded, but
theoretical, discussions. From the literature, four categories of appearance-based product
attributes are identified: 1) social values and positions; 2) usability and interaction; 3)
visual qualities; and 4) personality characteristics.
The fieldwork was conducted using newly designed Turkish seating furniture (n=8). A
combination of visual stimuli and semantic differential methods were used, generated from
research sessions with the original designers of the furniture (n=8) and representatives of
their target user group (n=80). The results revealed that although the summed overall
impression is close to designers’ intentions, there also exist some considerable differences
between designers’ intended messages and users’ perceived messages. Designers perform
less well at communicating product meanings related to: usability and interaction, and
personality characteristics. Accordingly, these are identified as priority areas for improved
message transmission.

DRS 2012 Bangkok

Design and the Innovation Agenda – A Scottish perspective

Against the backdrop of increasing focus by UK policy makers and international academics
on the links between design, innovation and economic growth, this paper details an
ambitious research project being undertaken in the UK. The project is titled ‘Design In
Action’: a knowledge exchange hub running from 2012 to 2016 through which
interdisciplinary teams will engage in collaborative design to pilot a new model of designled
innovation.
As Design In Action (DIA) is in the stage of early development, this paper will outline the
research that is being proposed and how the ‘sandpit’ method of intensive workshops will
be used to enable collaborative innovation.  It will detail the planned aims of the project,
both in concrete terms (i.e. the number of products created) and in terms of how it is
intended that the project will promote design as an economic driver.  The paper will
address the theories that have influenced the development of DIA, touching on the role of
design in the innovation process and how the DIA team has defined the creative process
that will be fostered.  Finally the paper will, through the lead author’s doctoral research,
add to the debate on the model of ‘design-driven innovation’ championed by Roberto
Verganti, how the model compares to the approach of user-centered design and how the
conflict between these two models has impacted the discussions of the role of the user in the
development of a toolkit for innovation.

DRS 2012 Bangkok

Design for NOTES: A new vision of a flexible endoscopic platform

In the continuous quest for better surgical treatment, reduction of physical trauma, faster
postoperative recovery and better cosmetic results, technological progress and the
evolution of several diagnostic and therapeutic techniques have led to the rapid
development of mini-invasive techniques that use the human body's natural orifices and
thus completely eliminate all types of incision. One of these techniques is NOTES (Natural
Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery), a surgical technique that accesses the
peritoneal cavity and thorax through natural orifices without generating any scars.
The purpose of this research is to develop innovative technological tools for mini-invasive
surgery through an interdisciplinary and user-involved approach. The goal is to improve
interaction with the surgical tool, physically as well as cognitively. This allows the
development of solutions that meet the needs of the surgeon and the medical team, and
ultimately is for the benefit of patients and the evolution of medical science. This paper will
introduce the reader to the challenges in undertaking a user-centered design approach for
design of medical equipment. Based on the considerations above, this project was decided
to undertake an innovative research exploring the surgery world in terms of design to find
effective and innovative design solutions through multidisciplinary collaboration between
the Laboratory PUL (Product Usability Lab), Biodesign Lab of the INDACO Department,
Politecnico di Milano and the AIMS Academy (Advanced International Mini-invasive
Surgery) of Niguarda Hospital.
The research objective is to provide new scenarios and guidelines for the design of flexible
surgical platforms. The overall approach was a user-centred and user-involved design
process with use of structured methodologies stemming from the design discipline.

DRS 2012 Bangkok

How can Feminism contribute to Design? A Framework for a feminist Design Research and Practice

In this paper, I present a framework for a feminist design research and practice. It aims to
guide design decisions from information, ideation to evaluation from a feminist point of
view. It tries to facilitate the selection of appropriate approaches and methods in each
phase with regard to feminist demands and requirements to support a feminist design on a
methodological, practical and evaluative level.
The framework integrates different gender theories whose perspectives correspond to main
phases and focuses that can be regarded as mandatory for human centered design. The
framework integrates the feminist standpoint theory, the theory of gender performativity
and the concept of ‘doing gender’ expanded by the actor network theory.
The feminist standpoint theory guides the designers’ attention to marginalized target
groups and experiences within the phase of information and ideation. Feminist
poststructuralist theories like the theory of performativity focus on the cultural construction
of gender in media and artifacts. Consequently, they have a natural link to the design
domain and can guide designers’ decisions during the phase of inspiration and ideation.
Design in this phase is challenged to invent new forms of gender representations and
experiences to contribute to a socially fair and plural society. If a design concept or artifact
meets feminist demands and requirements just becomes visible in interaction and use. The
concept of ‘doing gender’ in combination with actor network theory focus on sociomaterial
interactions and promise to provide benchmarks for a feministdesign evaluation.

The application and empirical benefit of the framework is illustrated by a brief case study.
The example shows how feminist perspectives can enhance the selection of methods, the
critical reflection of designers’ gender assumptions and the evaluation of design results
with regards to their failure or success in terms of changing gender roles and behavior to
meet social equality.